By Sarah Rayne Baker
The reception of this movie, much like other blockbusters that belong to franchises with alarmingly cultish followings, was incredibly mixed. And to a polarizing degree.
The largest disparity is between critics and audiences. These gaps are usually normal. If you bought a ticket see a film, rather than watching it for free at a critics screening, then you’re far more likely to be self-selected as a fan already, and thus, more likely to enjoy it.
This rarely happens in the opposite direction. Even if it does, it’s certainly not supposed to happen with a unanimously renowned industry like Star Wars.
Except it has. Despite the 93 percent critics rating, The Last Jedi has the lowest audience rating of any Star Wars movie (and yes, that’s including the prequels). Yikes.
Just to get my cards out on the table, I thought The Last Jedi was fine. There were far too many times I felt a joke or simplified character evolution insulted my intelligence, as both a fan and consumer of their product, for me to agree with critics’ 93 percent.
However, I wouldn’t call it terrible. It looked beautiful and the action was satisfying on all fronts; certainly above a 56.
I should say I’ve never been a huge Star Wars fan, but I appreciated the sequels as a child because my mother had, and even then I recognized a holy standard I couldn’t subscribe to for my lack of cinematic understanding at that time.
Later, not much has changed, but I’ve seen a hell of a lot more movies and I can tell the difference between a clever, well thought out piece of art and a pandering, nonsensical piece of garbage.
It’s outside of my ability to grade this film as a member of a brand and franchise, but I will grade it as a standalone film with other cinematic contexts; giving us a place to consider the validity of the opinions of both die-hard fans and critics.
One of the most popular complaints fans have is that there’s simply “too much progressivism.” I can’t completely agree but I can see where this grievance is coming from.
One of my favorite elements a movie can have is a social commentary of some kind.
However, The Last Jedi is not smart about theirs. It is incredibly blatant and agenda-pushing. I was annoyed. It is perfectly fine to be blatant; films like Natural Born Killers, Fight Club and even X-Men do this beautifully and in a way that makes you think long after the credits have rolled.
But in this latest Star Wars picture, there was nothing left for me to think about. Two leads in this plotline might as well have spent all their airtime shouting “I hate rich people” and “all corporate business is bad” over and over. It would have been less obvious. I don’t think the film had too much progressivism; I think it was just done in a very simple-minded, Disney-fied way that cheated audiences out of a satisfying criticism this franchise has nurtured since the first one came out in 1977.
I give this complaint a 10/10 in terms of validity over critics’ opinions.
Another common complaint is that the jokes are too, well, jokey. Here is when fan commentary gets a little nitpicky.
The jokes did not bother me as much as their poorly done socio-political criticism, but that’s not to say I wasn’t bothered by them. There are a lot of jokes in this movie, and you either run with them or you don’t.
I did not. They inspired an eye roll or two, and maybe even an “I can’t believe they just did that, do they think I’m ten?” to cross my mind a couple times, but overall, this issue is easy for me to overlook.
The jokes were not badly timed, they were not even poorly written. They were merely meant for a younger audience and really didn’t gel well with the tone of the film in general. But if you’re someone who needs a consistent and effortless humor (that’s to say, not try-hard), I can see why this might be a deciding factor in your enjoyment of The Last Jedi.
This objection is a 6/10.
The last fan complaint I’m going to discuss is that the film was simply uninteresting. I can definitely see why people are up in arms over this.
No, I do not think The Last Jedi was uninteresting, but I do think it gave up on a lot of potentially very interesting mysteries and plotlines The Force Awakens
seemed to purposely set up. I felt like this latest film spent a lot of time telling me plots and leads I’d obsessed over since it’s previous part’s release just didn’t matter.
The 2015 movie was directed by J.J. Abrams, who Vox reflects upon as “never meeting a mystery he couldn’t tease.” But Rian Johnson immediately squashed many of those mysteries.
Who were Rey’s parents? Who was the hell was Snoke? Who cares, The Last Jedi ultimately concludes.
Fans felt disappointed at the casual disposal of something that seemed so important to the last film, and though that doesn’t necessarily make it uninteresting, it’s still enough for me to give this complaint a 7/10.
Yes, I think judgemental fans are justified in their complaints. However, I’m surprised these issues inspire such a passionate hatred for the film. As I’ve said, I think The Last Jedi was a fine movie. It’s greatest injustice is simply the potential it possessed yet didn’t live up to, in all three categories, and that’s something die-hard fans since the beginning are not going to forgive.
This sentiment may even carry into the next picture. It depends on whether or not this newest chapter in the franchise learns to properly utilize obvious prospects the nine films beforehand have set up for them.