This is a thoughtful and well written piece, about an under discussed aspect to the success of Star Wars, so kudos to you Sir. I particularly enjoyed the contrast to Lord of the Rings, since the magic in that universe was always terribly convenient to the point that I could never get invested in the films. Gandalf always has just the right spell to get him out of any tricky spot.

However, I’m going to have to disagree with just about all of your conclusions. I hated The Last Jedi because I think it gets the Force wrong for all the same reasons you think it gets it right.

For a start, there are really two magical systems at work in Star Wars: the Force, and the magic of cinema itself. Both must work in harmony; Rian Johnson only gets half marks here, with the result that the film always feels ‘off’. You’re right in saying Force-powers have continually evolved throughout the series (although I think the nature of the Force itself has remained consistent), but crucially, they have always developed in a way that was believable to the audience. In fact, the true power of the Force onscreen is in how subtle it is. Obi-Wan merely waves his fingers to trick the weak-minded; Luke must concentrate just to lift a small rock into the air; Vader chokes a subordinate from across a room. The most outlandish the Force ever gets is when the most powerful light-side user lifts a spaceship into the air, or when the most powerful dark-side user shoots lightning bolts from his fingertips. The original trilogy films knew where the line of believability was drawn (i.e. the limit of the movie’s magic), and were careful to never stray over it.

Similarly, The Force Awakens errs on the side of caution: Kylo-Ren can stop laser blasts in mid air, which is a natural development of Vader stopping them with his hand in The Empire Strikes Back. Rey pulls a lightsaber from the snow as Luke once did.

However, The Last Jedi throws restraint out of the window and goes big. Way big. It doesn’t flirt with the line, it races straight over it. It’s comical, cartoony and horribly misjudged, much like the prequels. Leia flying through space isn’t wrong because no Force user ever could do it – it’s absurd because Leia herself has never before hinted at having more than vaguest Force connection, was never trained as a Jedi, and never even met Obi-Wan or Yoda. Yet the first thing she ever does with the Force is pull off a feat that we would have a hard time believing any Jedi in the Star Wars universe doing. Try to imagine Leia flying through space in The Empire Strikes Back.

Luke’s Force-projection is bothersome for the opposite reason. It’s underwhelming (as well as grossly out of character). We live in a cinematic age where Loki can project an image of himself in The Avengers with the press of a button. Arnold Schwarzenegger did as much with a gadget in Total Recall. In other movies it’s a throwaway gag, whereas here we’re supposed to think it’s a feat so extraordinary that it would kill Luke to attempt it. And audiences like a cheap trick as much as Ben Solo does.

You also make a couple of factual inaccuracies. Characters have talked to each other through the Force for a long time (ghost Obi-Wan to Luke at the climax of A New Hope; Luke to Leia and Vader at the climax of Empire). The first time we see a ghost-image of a dead Jedi was not at the end of Return of the Jedi, but when Luke sees Obi-Wan as he is dying in the snow in Empire.