A noticeable amount of time has passed since the release of the latest Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, but it still continues to stir up controversy amongst its fans—so much, in fact, that some have decided to take action. About a month ago, one fan started a petition to “Have Disney strike Star Wars Episode VIII from the official canon,” meaning that the eighth entry within the Star Wars saga be scrapped and forgotten. Although the petition does not elaborate on whether the eighth movie is going to be replaced with another eighth movie reshoot or is just going to be skipped through the ninth movie, its existence shows the polarizing aspect of the movie itself.
Despite having a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, the movie only has a 49% rating from the viewers. With a divide this wide, one cannot help but ask why. According to fans, the answers range from “the spaceships don’t obey the laws of physics within space” to “the Luke Skywalker in this film is not the Luke Skywalker from my childhood” to “the answer to Rey’s parents did not satisfy me.” It may seem as if Rian Johnson and Lucasfilms did not know what the fans wanted, but that cannot be it, since one of the major complaints of The Force Awakens was that it was a rehash of A New Hope. Then, what really happened? Where did the fans and the creators of The Last Jedi (as well as the critics) go on different paths?
Truth be told, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is not a bad movie at all in my opinion, but it has its flaws. The film has great cinematography and directing and features great special effects, yet ultimately falters a bit when it comes to the pacing of the story and one of the subplots within the story. The film’s narrative, while presenting similar plot points to previous Star Wars installments, possesses a uniquely darker tone than its predecessors.
I believe that this controversy arises from the choices of Lucasfilms, JJ Abrams, and the loyalty of the fans to the franchise as a whole. The first problem was the choice of Lucasfilms to provide too much freedom to the directors of the new trilogy. The directors—there were more than one for the trilogy—were given free reign over story arcs and allowed to write their own scripts. This caused a discrepancy between the directors to occur: whereas JJ Abrams wanted to create an ode to the original trilogy with a lighter and hopeful tone, Rian Johnson wanted to craft a darker story, in which the flicker of hope created with the original theory dimmed with the passage of time. These clashing visions created inconsistency and incoherence within the story line, catching the fans off guard and resulting in negative backlash.
The second reason for the controversy is because of the choices JJ Abrams made whilst crafting The Force Awakens. JJ Abrams has his own concept for filmmaking—called a mystery box—in which the director withholds information critical to a complete understanding of the story from the viewers in order to create intrigue. This technique does generate suspense, but ultimately the mystery box cannot stay closed for too long, JJ Abrams states, or the viewer will get bored or angry. The problem with the mystery boxes in The Force Awakens is that the questions they raised were not answered in The Last Jedi, since JJ Abrams did not direct it. So during the two years in between, fans theorized in futility. When the film was finally released, their grand expectations were not met. The fans might have been satisfied if JJ Abrams directed The Last Jedi and provided the answers to the mystery boxes he created himself, and then left them on Rian Johnson’s shoulders.
Another reason for the retaliation against The Last Jedi has been so strong might be due to natural generational and age striations in the Star Wars fan base. Since its debut in 1977, dozens of generations have grown up watching Star Wars, and the kids who watched A New Hope in theaters are now adults in their forties and fifties. Truth be told, Star Wars is a family movie that is a space opera. They are for kids who watch Star Wars and fall in love with the spectacle, the force, and the lightsabers. It is awkward to see a fan in his adult years complain about how the laws of physics have been manipulated for the film, or how the Luke Skywalker they saw forty years ago has changed. The new trilogy of Star Wars films is for a new generation, and since Lucasfilms and Disney are crafting Star Wars for a new generation, they don’t want to replicate the original trilogy or do the exact same thing, since those movies already exist.
The Last Jedi takes a lot of risks and reaps the rewards of most of them, while failing significantly with others. Ultimately, Rian Johnson brought his own ideas to the table, and made a technically complex, visually engaging film, which is what really matters. While Marvel may have failed to meet the conditions required to satisfy long-time fans in this film, Johnson should not be vilified for pursuing his own artistic vision.
People grow and change, but they always expect the things they loved as a child to not change, which is impossible. Just like people, the characters in films, and the studios which create these films change as well. Petitioning to change The Last Jedi in the name of nostalgic desires would be the same as asking an adult to act like a child again.
