Problems with The Last Jedi? Here’s a list of 137 problems you might have missed, in 12 videos of Rian Johnson’s take on Star Wars.
I avoid most of the big 3 issues, such as…
(Hyerspeed/lightspeed ramming, Ghost Yoda interacting with the physical world, and the whole Finn subplot/plothole.)
Contents
It’s a mess
The Last Jedi is a series of messy concepts never really coming together. Or, one could say a series of B-plots, since there is no actual overarching plot. While:
- a) The Resistance or Rebels are just trying to run away from the First Order
- a1) Finn and Rose try to help fascilitate that, while
- b) Rey and Chewbacca are trying to help stop the First Order in general, and
- c) Luke just wants to be left alone. Along the way some people die, but it really has no consequence, aside from
- d) Kylo Ren deciding to help Rey while helping himself to dictatorship via assassination by killing Supreme Leader Snoke.
Problems with The Last Jedi
They’re everywhere. Every scene seems to have something going wrong, whether it be editing (Kylo Ren’s various sword grips per cut), comedy (mama jokes, Luke’s Lightsaber toss, Ben Swolo), sequential shots (the various suns, clouds and cliffs of Ahch-To), or tone (comedic? Serious? Nihilistic? Hopeful?)
Then there’s the complete and utter incompetence of the First Order being destroyed by slow moving giant defenseless bomber ships. The bomber ships themselves are laughably designed for this missions, because Rian Johnson wanted to symbolize…World War 2 bombers? In space? Why?
There’s the more obvious B-plot ones, like…Canto Bight, but those are obvious. I go into some you might not have noticed at first glance.
The out of control Force
Ghost Jedi can summon lightning? Check. That won’t cause any continuty errors. Or have potential futures where ghost Jedi/Sith can now fight each other. Or influence reality. Snoke can Skype call and teleport-link two peoples minds from lightyears apart, in some sort of super-Force Bond a la carte. Luke has a similar power. He can project himself, but create physical objects made out of pure force, even after he has died (the “force dice” dissipate shortly afterward, but it’s still a thing that happens.)
Mary Sue? More like GodRey
Forget the other problems with the last Jedi. We have Rey, who, can do pretty much anything. Mary Sue? The title doesn’t do her justice. I deem her…GodRey. She can:
- See into the past and future.
- Be so powerful a Jedi Master is now terrified of her after seeing such raw strength only once before.
- Defeat said Jedi Master in combat.
- Take on 5+ guards at once and win without using force powers.
- Escape an entire super dreadnought with over 2,000,000 First Order officers without a functioning lightsaber.
- Steal the Supreme Leader Snoke’s personal craft, meet up with the Millennium Falcon and board it in space, and somehow know how to get to Crait to help save a bunch of speeders on the ground.
- Triple kill TIE fighters with one shot with the Millennium Falcon’s turret.
- Kill 10+1 TIE fighters. Then, supposedly kill 10 more offscreen with said now damaged turret.
- Telekinetically lift 50-75 boulders of varying size and weight into the air like they’re nothing, then gently place them on the ground while hugging a friend.
- Apparently also lift whomever is left from the Resistance/Rebels over a 5 story jagged snowy/salty cliff onto the Millennium Falcon.
She can also sense the death of a Jedi Master lightyears away. But this is not a big deal anymore, because Superman Leia “I was just in a coma” Poppins can as well.
Problems with The Last Jedi? Not to the critics.
The critics say something completely different. They think it’s brilliant. So different! So subversive. (91% vs 44% on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s 442 critics vs. 209,542 users.) For example, Erik Kain of Forbes seems to think Rey isn’t a Mary Sue.
I go over that with @LiteratureDevil in some detail in 3 podcasts, looking at the 3 articles that Kain wrote on the issue. Rey is the redefinition, the poster child for Mary Sue. It’s so blatant it’s laughable.
How are there so many problems with The Last Jedi?
Star Wars is popular. Because it is, and TLJ failed to connect with fans for whatever reason, we take a more critical eye to figure out why. And, we realize, the meaning behind scenes are either minor or non-existent. When you read something by the greats, you know what to expect. A solid, creative, consise story with believable characters. This perception of what Star Wars is plays into ones expectations of what we want.
But when you take a beloved franchise and don’t give fans what they want and expect? You get a negative response.
Regardless of bias, if the story was actually logically consistent, had characters that acted intelligently, and also did something new, a lot of these flaws would be minor. But, because of the amount of empty scenes and otherwise pointless outcomes (everyone ended up where they started, with a lot more dead people), all that we can focus on is what’s there. Which is illogical, pointless, meaningless drivel.
But at least it looks and sounds good.
