Have you ever seen a film that needed defense like this five years later? Why do they care enough to try?
It really is an impressive feat that The Last Jedi has achieved. Despite coming in more than half-a-billion less than its predecessor film, the dogmatists who love TLJ have been trying to convince the world for five years now that the movie is great. With Kenobi out and the response to it being perhaps not what Lucasfilm would have liked, it seems that we’re back to more Last Jedi defense. It makes sense considering Kenobi is more in line with the TLJ method of Star Wars rather than the Favreau-Filoni style Mandalorian pieces. But seeing the director come back out five years later to defend his movie still… even after it is all but confirmed his supposed trilogy is dead… it just begs the question, at what point is the horse so dead the beating can stop?
Haven’t touched this stuff in years, but Bryan lines them up and knocks them down so succinctly and with such a pleasant tone, I figured eh, fuck it. (replies off to spare his timeline) https://t.co/SxrLP8qWOM
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) June 7, 2022
Turning off replies is always a sure sign that you’re confident in something…
But it’s not just tweets and lengthy defenses from the director, Rian Johnson, that we’re having to cover today. Oh no, there are actually full-on articles coming out to defend The Last Jedi. It’s as if Kenobi’s reception is bringing back the Star Wars Kathleen Kennedy Defense Team from their recesses. Point of clarity, though: if you are enjoying Obi-Wan Kenobi, good for you. I want you to enjoy Star Wars material. So far, it isn’t my cup of tea — and I think it’s headed for a rough ending. But if you like it, I’m happy you do. I just find it interesting that as Kenobi is showing signs of another “divided fans” situation, we’re back to hearing the full-throated defenses of The Last Jedi. Take, for example, the article from yesterday out of ScreenRant:
It’ll be interesting to see if, through Obi-Wan Kenobi, people will gain a different perspective on Star Wars: The Last Jedi. As Young details in his Twitter thread, most of the biggest criticisms of the film were misinterpreted. While Johnson didn’t go point-by-point, his retweet constitutes his endorsement of Young’s defense of some of the purported problematic plot points of the blockbuster. Since replies for both tweets are turned off, there’s no saying how the general public receives this breakdown. — Ana Dumaraog
You really have to hand it to them. After five years — five years — The Last Jedi still needs defending at the highest levels because it was “misinterpreted.”
Guess what wasn’t misinterpreted?
Spider-Man No Way Home
The Mandalorian Seasons 1-2
Top Gun Maverick
Ghostbusters Afterlife
Etc, etc, etc.
Funny how those media properties aren’t getting defense articles and tweets years later. They stand on their own and they’re beloved because they’re excellent. Excellent movies don’t need defense five years later. But the dogmatists have to defend it because it is their iconography, it is their ideology manifested on a movie screen. It’s just too bad it has been soundly rejected. And if you think defending it years later will help, think again:
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Ah yes, the price I pay whenever I visit this website in hopes of insider information: On-going hatred toward The Last Jedi.
I thought it was fantastic, and one of the most satisfying experiences I ever had at a movie theater. But if you didn’t like it, that’s fine. Live and let live.
But as far as dead-horse-beating is concerned… The irony is so so rich.
Well, I think all three movies are terrible, but I won’t argue against a good theatre-going experience or simply enjoying a piece of media. There’s a severe lack of that here.
Could care less about The Last Jedi at this point. It’s irrelevant.
The issue now is certain people at Lucasfilm that should have been gone a LONG time ago, are still there. Absolutely NOTHING they do at Lucasfilm can succeed they way Disney wants with the ‘activist’ crowd still in charge. Doesn’t matter if Faverau can hit a grounder with The Mandalorian, the rest of Lucasfilm will keep striking out.
Before things can change, CHANGE THE PEOPLE!
Maybe they want Star Wars fans to rewatch it in a new perspective. They will fail. These Disney+ series are completely un-watchable and re-watchable. Do it if you dare. Better to not do it. It’s the Multiverse of Madness phenomenon. It’s reset itself eventually.
Sign that you ‘made it’ WDW Pro – apparently now you have enough reach that Hollywood media outlets and Disney employees are posing as a regular people to try to detract from your articles in the comments section.
When the enemy camp has to send people to comment on your articles to try to refute them, you know you’ve hit the big time!
Congratulations!
The problem was the Rise of Skywalker.
I’m not a fan of The Last Jedi, but the community needs to recognize Star Wars couldn’t conceive a conclusion, so they retcon with The Rise of Skywalker.
Consider a third movie with The Knights of Ren as the villains with Rey ending the last Knight before dying. Finn starts Jedi training. Luke leads them to a Jedi temple as a force ghost. More children are using the force.
There was a conclusion that improves The Last Jedi. But it was a different story.
No, I’d say the problems all started with TFA. Without TFA, you don’t have TLJ or TRoS. TFA made losers of the OT winners for no other reason that to roll out a red carpet for the newbies, leaving Rian to try to make sense of where JJ left them*. None of their accomplishments meant anything after RotJ, their characters have regressed or been completely bastardized for no good reason, and there was no worldbulding except to recreate scenes and places from the OT. Then Han Solo gets murdered by his son. Life’s a bitch, then you die. Now that’s Star Wars.
*And in case you think the Sequels were basically a rap battle between JJ and Rian, the truth is that JJ loved Rian’s script before TLJ came out. After TLJ, everyone distanced themselves from Rian while suggesting everything was fine. Nerdonymous made some great videos analyzing the making of the Sequel trilogy.