A film of this length that has so much going on requires far more unpacking than this one-paragraph review, but suffice to say The Last Jedi starts with an absolute bang and is absolutely rollicking entertainment, and as expected the trailer played with expectations by means of clever editing and in the movie things certainly 'are not going to go the way you think'. Rian Johnson - an edgier director with whom Lucasfilm stuck but who understands Star Wars yet is brave enough to make some very distinct choices here - gives the series some new visual ideas, some delightful throwaway humour, some unexpected character development that feels freshly ambivalent and a series of bold set pieces that absolutely deliver. It is certainly darker (relatively) than Episode VII, but it is story-driven and puts the characters in situations where choices have consequences. Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac deliver the strongest performances here, and Carrie Fisher is majestic in her final bitter-sweet appearance. No doubt the diehards who complained that The Force Awakens stayed too close to A New Hope will now say this film is too modern and not light-fantasy enough, but these are precisely the two main reasons that make The Last Jedi not only interesting but also a franchise progression. It would be nitpicking to say that one plot strand gets a bit familiarly Battlestar Galactica at points, and there is a bit of a mid-point lull, but overall The Last Jedi is genuinely entertaining, and whether or not Abrams continues in this new vein or reverts to safer ground for the trilogy-closer, the next film is left with real potential to explore this 'new' Star Wars universe.
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