Star Wars: The Last Jedi Is Better Than Fans Think


In today’s guest post, Craig Joseph Pisani shares his thoughts on some of the controversies surrounding the latest Star Wars film, which just hit DVD and Blu-ray. Warning, spoilers ahead!:

Last month, I penned an article praising Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as a film for the fans by recreating the “feel” of the original trilogy through plot hole filling material, costumed characters, true sets with a perfect balance of CGI to compliment and a Darth Vader lightsaber sequence that we’ve waited 40 years to witness.

I had hoped the latest installment in the saga, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson, would build on that momentum and blow away it’s predecessor in the series, The Force Awakens. With diehard fans in an uproar and petitions or Disney to remove the film from the Star Wars canon, may are displeased with this new entry — the most divisive in the franchise’s history. After personally seeing it twice, I say relax and enjoy the ride, because the film works and it’s better than you think. Here are three reasons why the gripes are hypocritical:

1. They killed Snoke!

So all of the theories that fans produced since 2015 led to a big fat nothing. So Snoke isn’t Darth Vader reincarnated, and he isn’t Darth Plagueis, and he isn’t Jar Jar Binks as some suggested. And we don’t know his backstory (yet?) which drove fans bonkers. But before the prequels, what did we know about the Emperor? Really nothing at all, and it didn’t bother us then so why does a new character we have no prior knowledge of who is also killed by his apprentice bother us now?

2. They ruined our hero!

Luke Skywalker abandoned his family and friends after making the mistake of attempting to assassinate Kylo Ren and failing. Fans didn’t like that he has become a crotchety old man. What makes this hypocritical? Yoda and Obi-Wan basically did the same thing in the original trilogy without a fuss from fans. The dialogue spoken acknowledges their complaints on a few occasions through the question “what did you think was going to happen?” and when Kylo Ren says to “let the past die.” This was directly speaking to the audience both times asking them to embrace the new generation of characters. Unfortunately, with Carrie Fisher’s death, fans now have no choice but to let the past die…or not watch new Star Wars films anymore.

3. Captain Phasma was going to have a bigger role!

Oh yeah? Who said so? Obviously Disney is trying to recreate the aura of cult fan favorite Boba Fett here. Time will tell if it works and in twenty years if we are hoping for a Captain Phasma spin off. Boba Fett is still alive in the Sarlacc Pit right? Or so you hope. So maybe Phasma survived the fall. Keep an eye on the IMDb page for Episode IX’s acting credits if you care enough to find out before the film debuts.

Craig Pisani is an avid moviegoer and aspiring screenwriter with Bachelor’s degrees in both Cinema and English.

Check out our complete assortment of Star Wars: The Last Jedi merchandise here, and be sure to tell us what you thought of the film in the comments!

This post originally ran in March. We are reprinting it as part of our ongoing Summer of Sci-Fi series of new and archival posts celebrating the science fiction genre.