I'm cautiously excited.
The force awakens was okay. Not my favorite movie, at all, but neither was A New Hope. When I first watched it, I assumed that they were gonna make up for the character development in the next movie. Examine Rey's motivations, have Finn grow as a character, etc.
The last Jedi, of course pooped all over my expectations. Apparently this makes it a subversive masterpiece.
Words really can't describe how disappointed I was with TLJ. There were so many interesting ideas and concepts that just continuously fell flat on their face over and over. And I'm not even talking about the purple girl with the hyperdrive thing. I get it. Rule of cool and all, it's fine.
I'm talking about how Rey was revealed to have nobody parents and nothing is ever done with it. There was such massive potential for conversations about what she's fighting for, all ending with her discovering the reason she fights or something like that. She could've made for a beautiful message about how you don't need some noble genealogy or great destiny to be a champion for good. Again, TFA seemed to set us up for something like this, with her fairly empty motivations. She would've eventually found a concrete reason for fighting.
I'm talking about the constant 'grey morality' rhetoric that's constantly stuffed in our faces but there's never any discussion about what this really means or why any of the characters should ascribe to it.
I'm talking about Finn finally realizing what he's fighting for and nearly completing his character arc in the form of crashing his ship into the laser thing, and yet being averted at the last second by a cringy 'love not hate' message.
And on a more technical level, the movie just doesn't work. There were these constant side quests that completely messed up the pacing. Not to mention the weird emotional tonal shift every scene.
I get the feeling they were trying to subvert the previous films for the sake of subversion. And while sometimes that's okay, when your act II feels like the epilogue, you know you have a serious problem.
That's why I'm somewhat eager for the new film. J.J Abrams seemed to have a better grasp of the themes of Star Wars, and just a better feel for pacing in general. It would take some serious heavy lifting to salvage the mess TLJ created, but I think Abrams has a chance.
Sorry for the rant.