“I’m even more proud of it five years on,” he told Empire. “When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball.” According to him, the movie is not just a Star Wars film - it’s a movie about Star Wars, and what it means to fans (himself included) “I think it’s impossible for any of us to approach Star Wars without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us,” Johnson explained. “The ultimate intent was not to strip away – the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of Star Wars in our lives.” While reviews have been mostly positive for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, there’s been a huge backlash online, many fans expressing how disappointed they are about the film. In Rotten Tomatoes, you can see the great divide between fans and critics. While The Last Jedi’s critics score is at 91%, the audience’s score sits at 42%, the lowest among the Star Wars live-action films.
If you’re wondering why some fans dislike Star Wars: The Last Jedi, here are the 13 biggest reasons why: While some fans enjoyed their presence since they’re funny and cute, they absolutely have nothing to do with the film’s plot. Many would compare them to the Ewoks in The Return of the Jedi but at least the Ewoks actually got involved in the battle vs. The Empire. You can take out the Porgs and the film’s story won’t change but hey, at least they made Chewie’s scenes more entertaining, especially the ones in the Millennium Falcon chase scene. Then right after Luke shows up to stall the First Order, POOF! There’s an exit after all! Crait’s crystal foxes lead them to an exit blocked by boulders. And of course, Rey makes it on time to clear their path and escape. Although it’s considered minor compared to other problems ranked higher in this list, some critics pointed out this flaw in the final act, calling it a result of lazy writing. Well, at least those crystal foxes are not as useless as the Porgs. Kyle Smith of The National Review summed it up best in his review: “Why is Luke, previously the most earnest guy in the galaxy, letting loose with acerbic wisecracks? When Rey hands Luke her precious lightsaber, he tosses it over his shoulder like an empty can of Dr. Pepper. He mocks it as a ’laser sword,’ while Rey, asked to explain the Force, calls it a ‘power . . . that makes things float.’ The tone here is similar to that of the self-aware jocularity of the progressively less successful 2009–2016 Star Trek series, whose concept is apparently being ditched in favor of an R-rated reboot overseen by Quentin Tarantino. You can go with self-mockery if you want, but it amounts to burning your seed corn to warm your hands. Get a cheap laugh poking fun at the mythology and its power won’t be there when you need it." What about Domhnall Gleeson’s punching bag Hux? While some see its comedy as consistent with the franchise’s legacy of wise-cracks, some thought the jokes were too contemporary and forced. Director Rian Johnson saw this criticism coming. Speaking to Vanity Fair during the film’s L.A. premiere, he said: “I knew [the movie] was going to get darker in some spots just because of what we had to do. It was really important to me, to, at the very outset, make a bold statement of, we’re going to have fun here also. Relax, you can laugh with it also, this isn’t just going to be a dirge. . . . That was the one thing I was most nervous about. . .You can never know until you put it in front of a big crowd of strangers is if the jokes play or not. So I was very relieved when we got the laughs. Oh, that very first scene. That was really the one that was just, I was holding my girlfriend’s hand very tightly when that came up. Then I relaxed when the audience got it and started rolling with it. It’s so important to me because that sets the tone and the expectation that, oh, O.K. there are going to be laughs in this movie.” While The Resistance is trying to survive the slow chase in space, there’s much ado about Poe (Oscar Isaac) taking issue with Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (Laura Dern) after she assumes command of the Resistance in Leia’s absence. It seems that Holdo’s plan is to just keep going along until all her ships run out of fuel, and it made us think that she’s a traitor and the reason why the First Order was able to track the Resistance ships. Of course, Poe would be concerned about her leadership but it turns out that she actually has a plan –to secretly evacuate everyone in the shuttlecraft that would lead them to an abandoned Rebel base on the mineral planet Crait. So why doesn’t she reveal to Poe about her plan rather than lead him to an eventual mutiny? And was Holdo’s suicidal hyperspace moment necessary? Couldn’t she just set the ship on autopilot and use an escape pod herself? This part of the film is just dumb. Some fans believe that Kylo Ren’s story about Rey’s parents isn’t true and that we’ll find out who they really are in Episode IX. With Abrams returning in that film, who knows? Maybe he’ll provide a more satisfying revelation. J.J. Abrams did a great job setting up the mysteries in The Force Awakens, and it looks like Rian Johnson took the lazy way out when it comes to providing answers to those mysteries. Some fans felt fooled after seeing The Last Jedi. The theorists waited for a couple of years only to find out that those questions never mattered. As if Johnson just threw away what J.J. Abrams built. Even Mark Hamill himself disagreed with Rian Johnson’s take on Luke. He told Vanity Fair back in May: “I at one point had to say to Rian, ‘I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character. Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize your vision.’” Back in June, Hamill walked back those remarks telling Variety that he “got in trouble” for how “inartfully phrased” that statement was. “What I was, was surprised at how he saw Luke. And it took me a while to get around to his way of thinking, but once I was there it was a thrilling experience. I hope it will be for the audience too.” And right before The Last Jedi premiere, Hamill was still expressing doubt on Johnson’s characterization of Luke. “‘It’s time for the Jedi to end?‘ Are you kidding me?” Hamill said, reiterating what he told Mashable: “I’m just saying, what could have happened between the last time we saw him and now for him to be that way? Even if it was the worst thing in the world, I said to [Johnson], ‘Jedis don’t give up.‘” While Rian Johnson recently said that Luke’s demise was necessary to give focus to the new characters, Hamill is still throwing doubt about Johnson’s take: “Well, I’m still in denial,” Hamill joked. “I just think he transported somewhere else.” It seems that Rian Johnson just decided to include a Cloud City-like scene in the film without giving it much significance to the whole story. The Cantina Bight plot featured a spectacular chase sequence with llama creatures and a glitzy setting of the wealthy who profit by selling weapons to the First Order and the Resistance, but it also had some dumb moments. Did they really get jailed for a parking violation? Did BB_8 really overcome an enemy with a fusillade of poker chips? Of all the jail mates Finn and Rose had, they had the one they exactly needed to escape, Benicio del Toro’s character, DJ. And how did Finn and Rose even manage to escape the space chase undetected and make it on time? Sure, this side mission gave Finn more purpose to the story. His role in The Last Jedi would probably be more boring without it, and Canto Bight is an interesting new world introduced in the Star Wars lore, but the film could exist without it. Fans have spent two years since The Force Awakens theorizing about Snoke’s mysterious origin. Was he a descendant of Emperor Palpatine? Was he Darth Plagueis, Palpatine’s master? Was he Ezra Bridger from the Rebels animated series, all deformed and grown-up? How did he become so powerful in the Force and end up being the leader of the First Order? A lot of the fan theories actually made more sense than what happened, but some would argue that when the original trilogy first came out, fans didn’t know a lot about the Emperor. We learned more about his backstory in the prequel trilogy, so why is this a big deal? Fans aren’t just upset about Snoke’s surprising death and his lack of backstory but also how he was killed. Snoke is proven to be way more powerful than Rey or Kylo Ren. He can do Force Lightning -an advanced technique that Kylo Ren can’t do. If Snoke is truly the Master of the Force, how did he not notice the danger of Rey’s lightsaber? Seeing him die that way is truly disappointing. At least give him a cool battle sequence against Luke or Rey before dying just like that. It’s just sad seeing everything J.J. Abrams built in The Force Awakens reduce to ashes in the sequel as if Johnson didn’t care about them. Imagine if Voldermort in the Harry Potter franchise was ultimately killed by Severus Snape, and Harry Potter never had the chance to shine. That’s pretty much Snoke’s death.
I’m sure many of you would disagree with the reasons I’ve listed above but it’s clear that these are common complaints that made The Last Jedi mediocre. Read more: 10 Questions We Have After Watching Star Wars: The Last Jedi
