Introduction: 1 year ago on this day, Daredevil star Charlie Cox celebrated his 35th birthday. Also, a small film about spaceships and laser swords was released. Joking aside, despite being praised by mainstream critics (boasting a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 8.1/10 based on 416 critcs), The Last Jedi has the most divisive audience response in cinematic history. Now, if it was just audiences not being fans of the quality of the film, then it certainly would make for some good debate on the film’s merits. But that’s not what this post is about. Why? Because the response to the film went beyond it’s quality. People have used this film as their driving force to harass and bully other people, from the people involved in the making of the film, to the people who love the film and the people who have legitimate criticisms of the film. This post is going to address those people and why they are everything that’s wrong in our modern society. Full disclosure, this is NOT an attack on people who have genuine complaints against the film. No film is perfect and it’s a fools errand to claim this one is any different. If you genuinely did not like this film, that’s perfectly fine. We’re all entitled to our opinions and I have no ill will towards people who didn’t like the film. That said, it’s time to grab our bats and beat this dead horse one more time as I slam the most egregious instances in response to The Last Jedi.
The “No Girls Allowed” Cut: https://www.pedestrian.tv/entertainment/last-jedi-mra-fan-edit-women/ Shortly after the release of the film, a couple of sexiest trolls thought it’d be a good idea to make a 46 minute cut of the film which removes all the scenes featuring woman. I wish this was a joke. This “No Girls Allowed” cut ineptly turns the film into an incomprehensible mess as it removed Admirable Haldo, Rose Tico’s sister, Paige, Leia scolding Poe, Rose’s final line at the end and basically any scene involving Rey. What’s left of the film is an incoherent and unfocused plot with underdeveloped characters, awkward dialog and nonexistant humor. And this is without actually seeing the 46 minute sexist disasterpiece. Not only was the conception of the “No Girls Allowed” cut childish and selfish, it also undermines the performances of the actresses involved in the film. Daisy Ridley, Laura Dern, Kelly Marie Tran, Veronica Ngo, and the late Carrie Fisher tried their best to give the best performances they can muster. Even if you didn’t care for one or any of the them, cutting them out from the picture is not the solution.
The Retcon Petition: https://www.change.org/p/the-walt-disney-company-have-disney-strike-star-wars-episode-viii-from-the-official-canon There’s a petition on Change.org to have The Last Jedi removed from the Star Wars canon. Really. As if making the events of the film null and void will magically erase a year and a half’s worth of hard work form Rian Johnson and his crew from existence. Yeah, no. First of all, even if this film were to be retconned by Episode IX, the film still exists and is still watchable by people who like it. Second, Lucasfilm is not likely to oblige to this because despite popular belief, their actually is a plan in place for the new trilogy. It might not be for everyone, but it’s a plan Kathleen Kennedy wants to see to the end. Third, the film grossed $1.3 billion, ergo, this tells Disney and Lucasfilm people bought the film that was presented to them, ergo, they want to see what happens next, ergo, we’re getting a followup to the story told in The Last Jedi, whether you want it or not.
The Harassment of Kelly Marie Tran: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44379473 This past summer, Kelly Marie Tran deleted her instagram posts following a string of constant harassment and bullying. Sure, that’s real smart and productive. Bully and harass a woman you don’t know because you didn’t like her performance in a movie. By George Washington’s powdered wig, I didn’t know they allowed idiots in the Star Wars fandom! Seriously though, to say that this was unacceptable and uncalled for would be the understatement of the century. This is just cruel and mean spirited, especially considering that this was Kelly Marie Tran’s big break. This was also a major win for Asian representation in modern blockbusters as Tran was the first actress of Vietamese decent cast in a major role in a Star Wars movie. You’d think that would be the big take away and that her role would be celebrated for being a positive role model for young Asian girls. But, no, instead she has to be a martyr and be shamed for “ruining” the film.
Abusing the Tomatometer: https://www.indiewire.com/2017/12/star-wars-last-jedi-backlash-alt-right-female-characters-1201910095/ While the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is lower than the previous Star Wars entries (45% with an average rating of 2.8/5 based on 203,622 users), this wouldn’t have been possible without the help of spiteful trolls making bot accounts to vote down on the film. These accounts were created days leading up to the film’s release and the goal was to make the film look bad for lols and fun. It wasn’t just The Last Jedi that suffered from this; these trolls also made films such as Thor: Ragnarok and The Shape of Water look bad with their false negativity. The site moderators have taken action to this, but the damage was done. Now, I’m not claiming that most of the users who scored the movie down are bots (see the introduction above), but these trolls didn’t help matters in the slightest. All they did was unnecessarily harp on a movie they likely didn’t see just so they could ruin the fun for everyone else. Needless to say, it’d worked considering where we are now. Thanks for that.
Conclusion: All of this leads into my final and most important point: none of this had to happen. Sure, there was going to be discussions about the movie and it’s quality, but that’s where it should’ve ended. Discussions, debates, essays, analysis, people just talking about how they felt about the movie. None of that bullying or harassing the cast and crew, no talk about removing it from canon, and no using the Tomatometer like it’s a toy. Now this is not to say the film should be universally like by all, far from it. In fact, shame on anyone who tries to force their opinion on to others, positive or negative. It should go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway so I can hammer this point hard. It’s Just a Movie -.-
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