XPost: alt.fan.starwars
From a long article (including explanations of the author's four
reason) at Variety.com ...
Four Reasons Why 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Isn't One for the Ages
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A stupendous "Star Wars" movie is something you'll know if you see
it; it's not something you have to convince yourself of. Yet in the
new, born-again, rebooted-by-angel-craftsmen era of the "Star Wars"
franchise, there is so much sheer collective pop fundamentalist
desire for these films to be great that it's almost as if we can't
allow ourselves to confront the ways that they fall short. Even
when those shortcomings are staring us in the face.
Here are four ways that "The Last Jedi" doesn't measure up - even as
the film seems, on the surface, to have delivered exactly what it
promised. You can call me a curmudgeon if you want, but the issue at
the heart of my quibbles is simple, and not really so negative.
Forty years later, we're still talking about "Star Wars" and "The
Empire Strikes Back." Decades from now, are we going to be talking
about "The Last Jedi"? If the answer is "no," then I say: Someone is
doing something wrong. Because even as a non-"Star Wars" fanatic,
I want these movies to be great. Don't you? The enemy of greatness,
at this point, may be nothing less than the overly facile and
calculated imitation of greatness.
1. Rian Johnson doesn't know how to structure a movie.
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2. You can feel the force of repetition.
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3. Watching a "Star Wars" film has become a postmodern experience.
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4. Critics and fans have traded places.
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The movie has received a 93% Fresh rating from the reviews compiled
by Rotten Tomatoes, but - tellingly -�only 56% of viewers on the
same site have given it a "Like" rating. My own admittedly
unscientific anecdotal survey is that the average person I've talked
to feels underwhelmed by the movie, though in ways they're not always
sure how to define. (The most consistent idea I've heard is: It's no
"Empire Strikes Back.") I've seen countless movies I've loved more
than audiences, but when critics start to sound like fans and fans
starts to sound like critics, we may finally have reached a moment
when the "Star Wars" galaxy, even in the hyperspace of its success,
needs a realignment.
<
http://variety.com/2017/film/columns/star-wars-the-last-jedi-four-reasons-why-its-not-one-for-the-ages-1202643241/>
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