This didn't feel like Star Wars. Now, I know people said that after viewing The Phantom Menace, but the prequels, despite their flaws, delivered a picture of a larger and more complex galaxy than the one we were introduced to in the original trilogy. The prequel characters were poorly written, scene direction felt off at times, Jar Jar existed, but at the end of the day I'll take the prequels over the new Disney films because they painted a universe. They made me want to see more Star Wars, and I appreciated the original trilogy's story arc even more after watching them.
The Last Jedi did the complete opposite. It killed my interest in the Star Wars universe because there seems to be nothing left to care about. The Resistance is just the Rebels. The First Order is just the Empire. No end is in sight. Rey is perfect already. Snoke is dead and no one cared enough to even explain his existence in the first place. The original trilogy might as well just have never happened. We've had three death stars. No stable political structure seems to be possible in the galaxy, and if it were we wouldn't visit it in the films. For all we know the conflict could be taking place in one tiny sector of the galaxy with the rest of the galaxy completely out of the loop. Sure, some people in a space casino make money off selling weapons and a slave kid has a Rebellion ring now, but that's not enough to establish why I should care about the story anymore. "They blow you up today, you blow them up tomorrow."
The humor was cringe-worthy. Even the characters don't care. Poe's prank-call at the beginning dissolved any anxiety we might feel about his character right out the gate. Star Wars doesn't have to take itself seriously 100% of the time, but its characters should feel like they're fighting real battles. I don't even want to talk about the casino scenes. Disney has no right to lecture us on capitalism.
Much of the movie was just scenes lifted from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, cut-and-pasted around in a different order as if we couldn't figure that out. I sense a tone of disrespect for viewers' intelligence. Additionally, it is deeply disturbing to me to see critics give this movie such a high rating and then see news outlets publish articles questioning how seriously we should take the backlash. It is not a flaw in the ratings system. Sure, casual and young viewers will enjoy. But the backlash is real, and it's not all crusty old fanboys nostalgic about the good ol' days and complaining about political agendas (not that the fanboys always have illegitimate arguments). I'm a twenty-two year old woman and I was very disappointed.
Star Wars is for everyone. That should include fans, and people who love good stories.
The Last Jedi did the complete opposite. It killed my interest in the Star Wars universe because there seems to be nothing left to care about. The Resistance is just the Rebels. The First Order is just the Empire. No end is in sight. Rey is perfect already. Snoke is dead and no one cared enough to even explain his existence in the first place. The original trilogy might as well just have never happened. We've had three death stars. No stable political structure seems to be possible in the galaxy, and if it were we wouldn't visit it in the films. For all we know the conflict could be taking place in one tiny sector of the galaxy with the rest of the galaxy completely out of the loop. Sure, some people in a space casino make money off selling weapons and a slave kid has a Rebellion ring now, but that's not enough to establish why I should care about the story anymore. "They blow you up today, you blow them up tomorrow."
The humor was cringe-worthy. Even the characters don't care. Poe's prank-call at the beginning dissolved any anxiety we might feel about his character right out the gate. Star Wars doesn't have to take itself seriously 100% of the time, but its characters should feel like they're fighting real battles. I don't even want to talk about the casino scenes. Disney has no right to lecture us on capitalism.
Much of the movie was just scenes lifted from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, cut-and-pasted around in a different order as if we couldn't figure that out. I sense a tone of disrespect for viewers' intelligence. Additionally, it is deeply disturbing to me to see critics give this movie such a high rating and then see news outlets publish articles questioning how seriously we should take the backlash. It is not a flaw in the ratings system. Sure, casual and young viewers will enjoy. But the backlash is real, and it's not all crusty old fanboys nostalgic about the good ol' days and complaining about political agendas (not that the fanboys always have illegitimate arguments). I'm a twenty-two year old woman and I was very disappointed.
Star Wars is for everyone. That should include fans, and people who love good stories.