Canadian Politics Today

I also really enjoyed The Last Jedi, but I also understand that a lot of people didn't enjoy it for totally reasonable reasons.  It's hard to sort out how much of the negativity around the film was from actual people who were disappointed with the film and how much was due to the Gamergaters and 4chan types.  Those people have an outsized online presence, but I think everybody-- including they themselves-- greatly overestimate their real power.  It's like the cartoon thing where you see a menacing shadow on the wall, but it turns out to be a mouse standing in front of a flashlight. 

I think, ultimately, that if it was a poor-quality entry in the series that could kill this franchise, it was The Phantom Menace, not The Last Jedi, that would have done it. 

It was mostly original, but almost too different from the original trilogy, the feel was off.  On the other hand, A Force Awakens was A New Hope remake with ESB scenes thrown in (Han dying on the bridge) with few original ideas.  I'm glad Rian threw away some of the remake plots he inherited.

I agree with this. I feel like The Force Awakens was the movie that really deserved more scorn from the **** Star Wars fans, because Kennedy and Abrams threw a large portion of the Star Wars canon-- dozens or maybe hundreds of books set after Return Of The Jedi-- in the garbage and said "**** it, let's just remake A New Hope.  That was stupid.  I really liked that Rian Johnson took a bunch of the most derivative ideas in The Force Awakens and threw them in the trash or turned them on their head.   Kylo smashing the stupid mask was sort of emblematic of the whole theme, to me. He unceremoniously dumped Dollar Store Emperor Palpatine as well.  The idea that Rey's parents were nobodies... junk peddlers, or whatever he called them, was wonderful, and it says something about the whole Star Wars saga that it was such a radical idea to propose that a character didn't have some convoluted connection to previous characters.  I liked that he tried to break a bunch of Star Wars' dumber tropes, and felt a little disappointed that many fans seem to have rebelled against the idea. "We *want* Rey's parents to be somehow connected to the Skywalkers."  "We *want* Dollar Store Emperor Palpatine back!"


I also agree about Rogue One being a really great addition to the franchise.  It started slow, but the buildup to the ending was wonderful. It built up so much momentum in the final act of the movie that I was still amped while I was leaving the theatre. The way that the ending it perfectly dovetailed with the beginning of A New Hope was wonderful, the cameo of Princess Leia at the very end almost made me cry, and best of all the scene with Vader.  That was really the first time in any of the movies they gave you a sense of why everybody in the galaxy was so **** terrified of him.  It was so good.

 -k