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:
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below.
