The Last Jedi: the complete trash fire that many thought had ruined Star Wars. From Luke throwing his lightsaber, to the awful comedy, forced feminism, Ackbar, and Luke’s death, it seemed like there was nothing good about this film.
The Last Jedi was the 8th movie in the Skywalker Saga, and was the most controversial Star Wars movie as far as fans were concerned. Directed by Rain Johnson, the movie hit theaters in December of 2017 and fans were immediately outraged over the latest installment. They argued that it forced left wing politics and treated past characters, such as Luke Skywalker and Admiral Ackbar, horribly. Many fans felt it wasn’t Star Wars at all and instead a bad parody of the famous Saga.
There was also backlash against new characters Vice Admiral Holdo and Rose Tico, who, in this writer’s opinion, had to be one of the most poorly crafted characters since Jar Jar Binks. Holdo and Rose brought social topics such as feminism into the movie, which no one asked for. Holdo served as a female replacement for the famous and fan favorite character Admiral Ackbar, and acted as the savior of the Resistance. In Holdo replacing Ackbar, the writers were attempting to make a feminst statement. But in the Star Wars world, statements on feminism, racism etc., do not make sense in a galaxy with both advanced technology and social understandings. Racism and and feminism as we understand it, just doesn’t exist in this galaxy. In fact, the only ‘racism’ that we ever witness is between humans and aliens.
In The Force Awakens, Snoke was introduced to be the new emperor of the series. For two years fans speculated on his origins. Was he Darth plagueis? Was he the sith emperor? Would Episode 8 reveal his origins? Instead of revealing his origins in the The Last Jedi, Johnson decided it was best to just kill him off without any backstory at all, killing him an entire movie too early.
Then last but not least, there was the issue of Luke Skywalker, the most beloved character in the entire franchise, and the main character of the original trilogy. Throughout the entire movie, Luke wanted nothing to do with the war at all. Even when he finds out that Han Solo is dead, he still refuses to help the Resistance. The writers didn’t even allow him to mourn for his friend. Though scene of Luke grieving was filmed, it was ultimately not included in the final edit. In addition, Kylo Ren’s reason for joining the dark side was due to Luke freaking out and accidentally igniting his lightsaber. Luke could have raised his X wing, like he failed to do in Episode 5, but he instead used the last of his strength to use a force power to have him just show up on Crate. But to top it all off, instead of following his story, he just dies. For many fans that seemed to be the end of Star Wars.
That was until the recent Rise of Skywalker, which hit theaters last December, fixed many of the problems from the last film. For one, Rose Tico is given little to no role and is replaced with new characters such as Jannah, a former stormtrooper, who left the First Order, and Zorri Bliss, an old friend of Poe Dameron. The movie is not filled with politics, unlike the last one, and many old characters are treated with respect. For example, Luke is able to raise his X wing for Rey, which he failed to do in the Empire Strikes Back, Leia is given a satisfying death as she sacrifices herself to bring Ben Solo back to the Light Side, and Lando is back to being the one who saves the day, coming in with a fleet of 16,000 ships. In addition, Snoke is revealed to be a creation of the Emperor, who is back in this film and played by Ian McDiarmid, and Aftab Ackbar, the son of the famous Admiral, is created to replace the Admiral and characters such as Wedge and Wicket return. All in all, The Rise of Skywalker fixes the mistakes of The Last Jedi, thus fixing the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
