Posted on 12/16/2017 4:32:19 PM PST by EdnaMode
Well, it's hard to say anyone saw this coming. Star Wars: The Last Jedi has finally arrived in theaters and fans are super excited about it. Or, at least they were. There was a ton of hype leading up to the release and, deservedly so, considering all of the questions Star Wars fans had after watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens two years ago. However, things are not going according to plan, as The Last Jedi now has a shockingly low audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. How low? Believe it or not, it's even lower than the score Justice League currently has.
This likely comes as a huge surprise to anyone who was following the news leading up to the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Following the movie's world premiere, the social media reactions were almost universally positive. That led to an incredibly positive first wave of reviews from critics. The movie currently holds a 93 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is great and ranks among the highest in the entire franchise. However, audiences don't seem to agree with critics on this one, as the audience rating is at an abysmal 56 percent.
To say the least, this is not what Disney, Lucasfilm or director Rian Johnson had in mind. To put that in perspective, Justice League, a movie that isn't what one would call a critical darling, currently boasting a 40 percent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, actually has a much better audience rating. As of this writing, Warner Bros. latest DC movie has an 80 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This is just one example, but in both cases, we see that audiences can dramatically disagree with critics. Though, in the case of Star Wars, this is pretty unprecedented.
As hard as it may be to believe, as of this writing, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is actually the lowest-rated movie, in terms of audience rating, in the entire Star Wars franchise on Rotten Tomatoes. It's close, but Star Wars: Attack of the Clones barely edges it out at 57 percent. The Phantom Menace is next, with 59 percent. Considering how much Star Wars fans seem to hate those movies, it's pretty amazing that The Last Jedi is ranked so low by those who have seen it. But it's also worth noting that critics were much closer in alignment with fans on the prequels, as Attack of the Clones has a 66 percent Tomatometer score and The Phantom Menace has a 55 percent.
So what does this mean? The audience score could change as more people see Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but at the very least, this is a divisive movie. That could be problematic, as Lucasfilm has already handed Rian Johnson control of a brand new Star Wars trilogy, which he's going to plan out and will direct at least the first installment of. Given Lucasfilm's rough history with directors, having fired Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the Han Solo movie and Josh Trank from Boba Fett, not to mention this issues with Rogue One, can they really afford to have another director kicked off of a project?
That's not to say audience reaction will ensure that's going to happen. But Disney and Lucasfilm will have to take that into account, even if Star Wars: The Last Jedi dominates at the box office, which it looks like it's going to. In any case, this Rotten Tomatoes score for Star Wars: The Last Jedi is very interesting, as pretty much everyone expected this movie to be a home run for the franchise. There are no sure things in this business.
Actually, it was during the Return of the Jedi when they introduced the Ewoks (teddy bears defeat the Empire) that it became irredeamable...At least that was the turning point.
EXCELLENT NOT, it is.
It is not bad, but it is far from excellent.
The Rose character was so poorly written and acted that it was like watching something out of the prequels every time she was involved in a scene.
The entire casino city scene was forced, horribly bad... written poorly, executed poorly, acted poorly... and served only to be a little political push... It was aweful and I am amazed it wasn’t left on the cutting room floor.
The rest of the movie was good... not great, but good... Could have been better.
From the larger context, I think the problem (other than the flagrant ones listed above) is the move of the series away from Good and Evil to shades of grey.... That’s not Star Wars.
The problem with the prequels, IMHO is that Lucas got too full of himself... he needed to hire screen writers to write the dialogue.... Instead he wrote it himself and its terrible....
Combine that with the insanely stiff acting of the Anakin actor and absolutely ZERO on screen chemistry between him and Padme, and you wind up with the mess that was the sequels.
2 years ago I introduced my middle daughter to star wars... I tracked down the original theatrical releases of the first three and watched them with her, and then after she saw those she wanted to watch the prequels... and I watch them with her... Watching them with her, not as a fan, I was able to see WHAT Lucas was trying to , and for the most part what he was TRYING to do with the prequels wasn’t aweful... unfortunately though the execution failed to bring what he was trying to do to life.
Don’t get me wrong, they are all still aweful, but when you see what he was attempting to do, you can see that there was potential there... but it just didn’t get realized.
My 7-year old granddaughter loved "Justice League" - but then her favorite character is Wonder Woman.
No surprise, she loved WW in her own movie as well.
I don’t know what to say, but the numerous plot lines that went nowhere killed interest for me. As cheesy the original three were, my could I actually laugh at and be entertained by them. Then there’s the whole gray morality funny business that comic books have already beaten on a dead horse about. My how Star Wars is a total mess of a story. I couldn’t even feel for the new antagonist, our new instant Jedi Rey. Even a remake of the original trilogy that copied off the dialogue and choreography of the original movies would be preferrable to me.
Return of the Jedi was the end of a story arc until they decided to make more movies. I could put up with the rediculous parts solely because it was the apparent end of the story.
“The movie was pure leftist feminist propaganda.”
I haven’t seen it and probably won’t so I really don’t have a dog in the hunt so to speak. Star Wars never were my cup of tea. I was more into Indiana Jones. I am mainly interested in how it is attempts to move the culture.
On another site, someone posted that the only good white guy was Mark H. and a 9 year old boy during the last 10 seconds of the film. I gather they thought the one pilot was Hispanic. I haven’t seen a corresponding anti white male observation here which is good.
I do wonder what percentage of Star War Lego sets are purchased by or for white males.
Well, you know what opinions are like!
I disagree with yours on those scenes as well as the light/dark/gray dynamic. IMHO the story arc isn’t moving toward an end where the light OR dark “win” against the other. It is about who will join the two together....again.
I enjoyed myself the whole movie, and look forward to more.
I did not like this movie at all and I think the Disney reboot is a failure.
1. Seriously, the most powerful Sith named Snoke??? He sounds like a teddy bear.
2. Snoke dressed like Liberace in a gold sequin.
3. The diversion of the casino planet extended the story with no real addition except for time.
4. Star Wars was originally for 12 to 16 year old boys, now it seems like it is written for 8 year old girls.
5. Chased across the galaxy, the last battlestar is looking for a planet...
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