somehow my first rewatch of this since I originally saw it in the cinema, and you know what? I'm firmly in the "likes TLJ" camp

I want to say that I think most of the nitpicking against this comes from a misunderstanding of the themes it conveys in the story
(I was gonna write a whole multi-paragraph rant about my interpretations of the contentious aspects here but I'll spare you - maybe I'll post my extended thoughts in the comments if you really want it)

to me at least it seems like the film makes its main theme of "the Force works in mysterious ways" clear enough to explain a lot of the major points of argument - and a lot of the other nitpicks are just straight-up nitpicks; any film can be torn apart if you overthink it enough

I personally think the thematic exploration in general of the nature of the Force and morality makes this one of the most interesting films in the entire series
(and for what it's worth, yes, I do have some issues and nitpicks with the film)

regardless of your opinion of this film, can we AT LEAST agree that this is by far the most beautiful and visually stunning film in the entire franchise? SO MANY amazing shots here
I noticed a lot of shots mirror other shots as well (the Canto Bight prison vs. the animal pen, Kylo on his bridge vs. Leia in the hangar)
it's like P O E T R Y

I think the sequel trilogy in general has a really nice visual aesthetic to it - TLJ in different ways than TFA (and while I haven't seen TROS as of this review I found the trailer for that to be visually very interesting too)

I guess what I'm really trying to say here is "TLJ is one of the worst movies ever made and Rian Johnson is a hack who ruined Star Wars forever" is a pea-brain take

(also forget the porgs, those crystal fox things are some of the most adorable animals I've ever seen)