What’s funny to me is people complained that TFA played it too safe, now this did the opposite of that and people are still complaining.
That’s the thing. At least fans should be a bit consistent. I personally really, really enjoyed The Force Awakens but my main gripe was that it played it too safe. So no wonder the Last Jedi felt so refreshing and amazing to me.
I personally felt that both did served the purposes they needed to. As happy as I am that JJ will be back, I do still wish they brought in someone else to bring it somewhere else (though here’s hoping JJ can deliver).
Also, since I guess my review will just come out in random fragments, here’s something I just realized: my least favorite scenes in TFA were Snoke scenes, my most favorite scenes in TLJ were Snoke scenes.
I don’t see how anyone can complain about Snoke in this film as well. He served his purpose as a great foil to our main protagonists. He was also animated well, acted well, and written brilliantly, especially in hindsight of how things turn out. I could care less about some elaborate backstory. It’s not like in Return of the Jedi we knew anything more about the Emperor than the fact that he was the evil master of Darth Vader.