Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

I've been surprised by the amount of backlash The Last Jedi has gotten, I think a lot of Star Wars fans don't know what they want. I was favorably impressed on first viewing and having now seen it a second time I think the story really holds up, or at least it did for me. The film is true to the original Star Wars trilogy, there are certainly homages to The Empire Strikes Back and other films, but its not as slavishly devoted to re-creating them as The Force Awakens was. In fact "let old things die" was an explicate theme of this film, and some of the plots developments in it recast The Force Awakens as a master misdirect. There are some moments in the film that I am genuinely very glad I got to see, there are low key elements to it as well that help to offset the temptation to always try to top what came before in terms of spectacle. This movies also got a good sense of humor, and leaves off in a place where I genuinely do not know the shape the next movie will take, and I'm thankful for that, let me be surprised. ****