Hey guys, I’m Dev and I just don’t get the controversy behind ‘The Last Jedi.’
What are you talkin' about?!
On Rotten Tomatoes, there’s a 37% gap between the critics and the user rating,
and some of the most die-hard ‘Star Wars’ fans have big issues with the way it steered the saga.
DO NOT WANT
I loved it! And so did the rest of the NowThis Nerd team,
and we were a little curious why this awesome movie has become so divisive.
We are issuing our strongest possible spoiler warning for this one.
The entire movie is fair game,
so if you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve got plenty of spoiler-free ‘Star Wars’ content for you instead.
Now, for those of you still with us,
let try to figure out
Why People Hate The Last Jedi.
For years, we’ve been poring over every scrap of information trying to learn what we could about this movie,
and plenty of fans have passed the time conjuring up all kinds of theories.
Is Snoke a disfigured Mace Windu, back from the dead?
Was Rey created by midichlorians? Is she secretly a Skywalker?
A lot of the most hardcore Star Wars fans were desperate for answers,
but all of those red arrows in the YouTube thumbnails were pretty much pointing to nothing at all.
One thing we can all agree on about ‘The Last Jedi’
It Didn’t Go The Way We Thought
Supreme Leader Snoke just turned out to be some old asshole in a sparkly robe.
He pretty much just shows up to die,
and we never learn about his rise to power,
or his connection to the Dark Side.
But does it really matter?
I can think of another cackling lunatic we didn’t really know a lot about:
Heh heh heh ha ha ha!
In the Original Trilogy, Emperor Palpatine was just as shallow as Snoke.
He’s nothing more than an extremely effective plot device,
Your thoughts betray you, father. I feel the good in you. The conflict.
and we learn all we need to know about him with just a few lines of dialogue and some badass lightning.
The prequels showed his beginnings as a scheming politician in Naboo,
Congratulations on your election, Chancellor.
but how much does that actually add to the throne room showdown in ‘Jedi?’
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
And as for Rey,
her parents turned out to be a couple of space drunks who traded her for booze.
She’s not part of the grand Skywalker lineage,
thank you.
She was just a scavenger on a junk planet before the Force found her,
just like the little servant kid on Canto Bight,
or a certain whiny farmboy from a shithole called Tatooine.
I was going into Toshi station to pick up some power converters!
The Force isn’t some dynasty that only people with the right bloodline can wield,
it’s the glue between every molecule of the Star Wars galaxy,
Life creates it... Makes it grow. It's energy surrounds us... and binds us.
and it belongs to every living being in it.
THAT, I think, is the perfect metaphor for the new direction ‘Star Wars’ is heading.
It’s not beholden to a small, hardcore group. It’s for everyone.
‘The Last Jedi’ has some simple answers to intriguing questions,
but it left some people unsatisfied
who projected on it the ‘Star Wars’ movie they wanted to see.
Please me allow to finish this because it's gonna seem like a bit of a jump...
We see Thanos! If he holds the Reality Gem, this means he can jump from different realities.
This will be our link to the Marvel Universe from the Star Wars universe.
There were plenty of unanswered mysteries in the Original Trilogy,
General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars.
and for years we had no problem filling in the blanks in our head.
We formed our own idealized version of the ‘Star Wars’ saga
and every new prequel or EU novel that added to canon also took away from our own.
It reminds me of the video game ‘Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.’
Fans of the first game were dying to get back into Solid Snake’s bandana.
So imagine their shock when he gets “killed off” after the tutorial level.
SNAAAKE!
For the vast majority of the game, you play as a whiny blonde noob named Raiden.
That's why you changed my code name...
And at the time, a lot of fans genuinely felt ripped off.
It was the polar opposite of what people hoped for, and they were pissed,
But with today’s hindsight, ‘MGS2’ is considered a postmodern masterpiece.
Raiden became a crucial part of the series,
and the game actually used the subversion to comment on the very nature of hype itself.
Given the right situation, the right story, anyone can be shaped into Snake.
Even rookies can fight like men of experience...
Sometimes, we have to let go of our expectations and get excited about what’s new.
Just like ‘The Last Jedi,’
It’s About Moving On
‘The Last Jedi’ is about tearing down the mythology of the ‘Star Wars’ characters,
Bringing them down to Earth for one last up-close look before they die and become legend.
Luke Skywalker isn’t the same bold and beautiful hero we last saw him as,
I'll never turn to the Dark Side.
He let his fear get the better of him for just one moment,
and as a result a lot of people are dead.
Luke has nothing but contempt for the Jedi legacy,
and actually voices a lot of issues people had with the prequels.
For all the talk of the wise and powerful Jedi order,
they were asleep at the wheel during Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side.
While they were practicing their cool flips and having boring council meetings,
they were completely blindsided by Darth Sidious and their whole religion got wiped out by CGI clones.
Luke has lost faith in what he believes,
but as the excellent Yoda cameo proved,
you can’t get bogged down with tradition.
When Luke finally buries the legend he never was,
he finds the power to help his friends in need
and once again gives the Galaxy a new hope.
Roll credits!
Again, ‘MGS2’ kind of nailed this back in 2001.
When you’re playing as Raiden, you run into Solid Snake,
Been waiting long?
who’s impossibly more badass than the player could ever be.
You want eternal rest? I've got it right here!
Just like Luke,
the beloved protagonist of the first game becomes a grizzled mentor,
and through Raiden and Rey,
we see their past experiences in a very different light.
I've seen this raw strength only once before. It didn't scare me enough then.
It does now.
Both stories are about passing the torch to future generations,
and trying to leave them a better world before you vanish into the binary sunset.
Find something to believe in, and find it for yourself.
And when you do, pass it on to the future.
Believe in what?
That's your problem.
By the end of ‘The Last Jedi,’ nearly all the old cast is gone.
Han, Luke, even Admiral Ackbar is toast.
I guess, IT’S A WRAP!
And sadly, Carrie Fisher passed before we could see what ‘Episode IX’ had in store for Leia.
In their place we’ve got a new cast of genuinely awesome characters,
who are conveniently played by young, charismatic actors who definitely come a lot cheaper than Harrison Ford.
Well, that's the real trick, isn't it?
They’re absolutely worthy of the ‘Star Wars’ legacy,
And so is ‘The Last Jedi,’ even though
It Wasn’t Perfect
Right off the bat,
I kinda have to agree with the haters on Leia’s 'Mary Poppins' float.
It was no Yondu,
I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!
and, yeah, the execution was ridiculous,
But I have no problem with the idea of a Force bubble keeping you alive in a vacuum.
If a Green Lantern can do it, so can Darth Vader’s daughter.
I’m also cool with Luke’s whole astral projection thing.
I mean, it had some pretty great foreshadowing.
Did you notice how Kylo and Luke’s blades never touch?
It’s why he did all those cool ‘Matrix’ moves instead of blocking.
His feet don’t make an impression in the salty ground,
and he’s using the lightsaber that just broke in half IRL.
I guess what I’m trying to say is,
Charles Xavier does this shit all the time and I don’t hear anyone complaining.
There were some plot and pacing issues,
And the characters were a little quippy at times,
but with Han gone, we can’t just laugh at Chewie growling.
Oh, really, you're cold?
[OFFSCREEN] He's a vegan now, they don't have a sense of humor.
Oh, shit, he's a vegan...
I do agree that Finn and Rose’s whole quest was ultimately kind of pointless in the larger scheme of the story,
but hey, this is act two of a trilogy.
Our characters are supposed to screw up and fail, so they’ll do better in part three.
All in all, we think Rian Johnson made an excellent ‘Star Wars’ movie.
And so did Lucasfilm, since they gave him a brand new trilogy as a reward.
‘The Last Jedi’ feels like he wanted to clear the slate and start fresh.
Now that we’re past the necessary nostalgia of ‘The Force Awakens,’
Johnson was able to drop the baggage and make a far less conventional film.
Of course, that makes it a little awkward that J.J.’s coming back for the next one,
Hope he didn’t have any big plans for Snoke,
but I think he’ll respect the new direction Johnson has taken the ‘Star Wars’ saga.