He rises to the occasion with his finest performance as Luke, using the timbre of his voice and the pain in his eyes to express Luke’s reluctance to confront his past, let alone help Rey mold her future. One of the major changes is that Hamill is no longer playing Luke as the archetypal hero – he’s now a conflicted, deeply damaged Jedi master.

That’s why it’s so satisfying to watch: it feels more like a complete story than your typical installment of Star Wars. By the time The Last Jedi ends, the Star Wars universe feels like it’s been through an entire trilogy’s worth of revelations. The first half is so exciting and involved that Johnson is able to hide the fact he’s setting up the truly stunning moments still to come. The film moves at a brisk pace, covering an impressive amount of ground while still finding time for slower, more methodical scenes, not to mention well-placed moments of levity. Johnson manages to tell a deeply personal yet large-scale tale that gives every character a moment to shine. It’s by far the most tense and exciting Star Wars adventure, and surprisingly, it’s also the funniest. The story wastes no time setting the stakes astronomically high, and things only get more dire from there.

Meanwhile, Rey tries her best to convince an ornery Luke to leave his secluded, Porg-infested island and rejoin the fight. The story picks up right after the events of the Force Awakens, with the First Order setting out to conquer a Republic-less galaxy by destroying the Resistance (natch). Johnson plays with all the toys Star Wars has to offer, and he’s not afraid to change – or break – a few along the way. There are fan-pleasing moments, for sure, but nothing is included without a purpose. It’s evident that Johnson understands the criticisms about every preceding film and predicted the assumptions about this one (to the point where some dialogue sounds as if it was lifted right from fans’ mouths), and that he used that knowledge to absolutely shatter expectations. Abrams’ The Force Awakens got dinged for borrowing too much from A New Hope, but recycling old material isn’t an issue in The Last Jedi.

Free Star Wars Ep. VIII: The Last Jedi