Let’s Talk About Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Good morning! As you may have been aware, there was a Star War last night.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is now in theaters, and that means we’re finally ready to talk about the movie in detail, spoilers and all. Oh, yeah, fair warning: massive, that’s-no-moon-size spoilers ahead, following the gif. You have been warned.

While the movie received great reviews, I’ve noticed a fair amount of backlash this morning while scrolling the interwebs, not to mention the Rotten Tomatoes fan score coming in significantly lower than the critic score. As someone who really enjoyed The Last Jedi, I’m fascinated as to why that is. It’s not that I don’t think there are legitimate criticisms to be made—my biggest knock against it is that it could easily have been two movies, which led the thinner parts to drag and the meatier parts to feel like they could’ve been explored more deeply.

But overall, I liked the character development on display, and I liked what the movie had to say about heroes, villains, and shades of grey—and the importance of being able to distinguish, rather than getting lost in “both sides”-ism. Some of the things I didn’t like felt more like my own personal expectations and theories getting in the way, rather than failings on the part of the movie.

I’m interested to hear whether others felt that fan expectations were upended to the point of betrayal. On the other hand, I’ve also seen criticism that the movie played it too safe and didn’t take things in bold new directions for the franchise when it had the chance. Did it not meet expectations, or did it stick so closely to them that it was uninteresting—or was the expectation that something daring would be done, and following the expected path wound up unexpected?

Or did you love it like I did and just come here to gush, talk it out with fellow fans, and come up with new theories going forward? Whatever the case, have it out in the comments below, but remember to be respectful!

(image: Disney/Lucasfilm)

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