“The Last Jedi” is out and fan reception is mixed.
The critics fawned all over it, but audiences were far less enthusiastic.
One of the reasons why is because of the ridiculous political messaging throughout the film.
Star Wars was always about escapism, but now that Disney has taken the reins, it appears the franchise has become about social justice.
From News.com (SPOILERS BELOW):
A LONG time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars movies used to be good.
They featured interesting characters doing cool stuff — flying spaceships, shooting laser guns, rescuing princesses from evil space knights.Today, under the rule of the Disney Social Justice Empire, Star Wars movies feature boring characters standing around giving cringe-worthy motivational speeches and crying.
Does anyone remember the scene in A New Hope where Luke Skywalker, sniffling as tears stream down his face, gives a two-minute monologue to Obi Wan Kenobi about his childhood and how the Evil Empire killed his uncle Owen and aunt Beru and how he hates, HATES them and they’ll never get away with it and he’s going to RESIST, as music swells and the camera cuts to Obi Wan’s face beaming with pride?
No. Owen and Beru get killed, Luke arrives just in time to find their charred bodies, looks sad for a second and tells Obi Wan, “I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father.” Then he f***ing gets on with it and doesn’t cry like a [non-gender-specific person] for two-and-a-half hours.
Or what about the iconic scene in the Mos Eisley Cantina where Han Solo meets Obi Wan for the first time. “I’m just a lowly smuggler,” he giggles nervously. “I’ve never met a JEDI HERO before!” Oh wait, that didn’t happen either. Han Solo didn’t care about Obi Wan. He called him a crazy old man and laughed behind his back.
People didn’t really care about things that much in the original films. Or if they did, they didn’t stand around talking about their feelings — they just did things, and we sometimes felt things as a result. In the new movies, everyone cares about everything, and they have to tell each other all the time, and as a result the audience feels nothing. The drama is forced, but worse, it’s completely unearned.
For three movies now, following The Force Awakens and Rogue One, these characters feel like children dropped into a Disney Star Wars theme park.
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There are so many things wrong with Rian Johnson’s abomination it’s honestly hard to know where to begin — the criminal waste of Luke’s final film appearance, the nonsensical plot (since when has space fuel been an issue in these movies?), completely pointless casino mission, flying space Leia, Rose’s entire character, the Phantom Menace-level awful “Resistance Kids”.
To be fair, many of the problems were inherited from J.J. Abrams’ slightly less awful predecessor — Rey the Mary Sue, emo Kylo Ren, the existence of the First Order completely invalidating the defeat of the Empire and the entire original trilogy — but Johnson somehow manages to make everything worse.
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Having read the glowing critic reviews, it felt like they had seen a completely different film. But then, as Meryl Streep, sorry, Laura Dern, literally turned to the camera and delivered a purple-hair speech to the Oscars crowd, sorry, spaceship, about RESISTING, everything made sense.
As bad as the George Lucas prequels were, at least they felt like they took place in the Star Wars universe. These new movies feel like a parody of Star Wars — a combination of Nickelodeon special and bad Saturday Night Live sketch.
George, we forgive you. Is it too late to bring back Jar Jar? I want off this Disney ride.
In addition to the issues raised above, the movie featured an inane subplot (that turned out to be irrelevant) which dealt with income inequality and environmentalism.
Rey is apparently the greatest Jedi in history but without any training, which she still didn’t receive in this movie.
All of the male characters are portrayed as either evil, incompetent, or both. Finn, one of the characters who almost got a heroic moment (after being a bumbling coward for two movies) ends up thwarted by a greater sacrifice from a female character.
The movie even added a dash of war profiteering for good measure.
Messaging in movies is to be expected on some level, but when it’s this heavy-handed and egregious, fans are going to lash out.
Unfortunately for diehard Star Wars fans, the franchise seems irredeemable at this point.