the last jedi

It's been a while since I watched The Last Jedi, but in the aftermath I was surprised by the starkly different takes people had on it.  I didn't hear too many people say they thought it was so-so.  I either heard people defend it as a great movie or point out that it was too far a departure from previous movies.

I recall hearing about online activity in reaction against the movie, but that's somewhat expected.  A lot of people treat the Star Wars universe as holy and untouchable, and so if a movie departs from what some fans would want to see some will react online.  Apparently, at least some of that online reaction was from Russian trolls, however.  So, this makes me wonder if the movie was actually more well-liked than I perceived before.

For my own part, I enjoyed almost everything about the movie that people complained about.

[Spoiler Alert!]

• Rey turns out not to have important parents?  Neither did Anakin, and that just reinforces that the hero can come from anywhere.  This is one I expect to be reversed in future movies, anyway.
• The diversion to the casino planet was a dead end?  We need some of those in our stories to increase the value of the strategies that aren't dead ends.
• Luke projecting himself across the universe feels like a bit too much?  There are probably twenty other force-related scenes in the other movies that one could make that argument against.
• Major characters are killed off too quickly?  Probably so, but it was gutsy to do that as well.
• Luke is a different type of character in this movie than how he ended Return of the Jedi?  I think his arc between the movies is fascinating because idealism to cynicism to realism to redemption is a compelling and realistic path.

I certainly expect that the director of this movie will not be doing another Star Wars movie because he painted future directors into too many corners with this one, but that's Disney's problem rather than mine.  I also think there were some scenes that were just weird (like Luke milking that animal), but overall that movie was potentially my favorite Star Wars movie thus far.

I fully respect that a lot of people aren't fond of this addition to the franchise.  It does make sense to feel this way because the movie goes in a different direction from previous Star Wars movies.  It could feel like the film is disloyal to the franchise in a way.  I just enjoyed the movie enough not to see it as doing some sort of damage to the universe of the prior films.