Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Why The Pod People Loved It

Soy Wars: The Divide

We think that’s a Poe… but nobody can be sure about anything.

 

It’s a well known fact that movie critics and general audience members look for completely different things in a movie. So having a large difference between the scores given by the critics and those given by the fans is not unusual. However for some reason people seem to be very touchy about critics giving the latest Star Wars movie a rating about 93 while the general audience rating is hovering around the high 50s. A forty point difference is a bit much and mere shilling and SOCJUS does not completely explain such a huge difference.

 

WCBS on the excuses for the critic / audience divide.

Yes the critics really are trying to deflect away the ratings split but claiming that mean people on the internet are being mean. The New Ghostbusters movie and Justice League are given as examples of a critic / audience split.

Welcome to JediGate. Yes we’ve been here before. Just get your passport stamped and your bags through customs. Don’t forget to tip the Wookie either.

And NO I DIDN’T LIKE THE MOVIE (1) Nor did anyone in the PulpRev or Superversive SF circles (as far as I can tell.)

but some people did like the movie… and this must be investigated further.

https://twitter.com/BrianNiemeier/status/942871799414640641

There’s no real need to explain why thus objectively bad movie isn’t resonating with general audiences and the reasons why Star Wars Fans hate The Last Jedi back just as much as the movie hates them have already been explored in depth and style.

http://www.castaliahouse.com/the-last-jedi-is-star-wars-for-people-who-hate-star-wars/

What therefore remains to be explained is why is there a small but noticeable group of people who did enjoy this terrible abomination of a movie? Why did the pod people like The Last Jedi?

First of all we can discount the SJW elements who are praising Soy Wars: Episode Hate (2) as they have no actual opinions of their own and are simply going along with the groupthink.

Professional shills and movie critics can also be discounted. Even those that didn’t take the Mouse Money are too terrified of being blacklisted in a Disney controlled entertainment industry.

This leaves a very distinct group of people: Movie Buffs and Generic Pop Culture Geeks.

You know who I’m talking about…

These are the Jack of All Trades Geeks who are not hardcore fans of any one thing but focus on keeping up with pop culture and current happenings. They typically learn enough to have a five minute conversation about virtually any geek fandom. These are the Shallow Geeks (3). They try to have fun every where they can and don’t get too tied into any one thing.

They also WATCH A LOT OF MOVIES

In fact the only difference between a Shallow Geek and a Professional Movie Critic is that the Shallow Geek typically has a real job and may have read several non-Harry Potter books (4).

Again you know who I’m talking about.

So why do hardcore movie watchers enjoy Star Wars: The Last Jedi?

Well we could ask them but none of them seem to be able to give a full answer.

The best responses involve vague worded variations on, “It was something different. It was unexpected.”

So let’s work from that. Something about this movie was different from all the other movies our Pod Person has recently watched.

For that we have to go back the original George Lucas Star Wars and what did George Lucas famously do? He made very heavy use of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth theories

https://infogalactic.com/info/Joseph_Campbell

George Lucas did other things but this is what the Hollywood types latched onto and very quickly hack screenwriters begin to incorporate elements of A Hero With A Thousand Faces into practically every Hollywood movie… and things have gotten to the point that for all practical effects modern movies and entertainment all have pretty much the same plot being told over and over again with only the names changed.

Joseph Campbell’s work is not invalid but it has been overused so much that is has become a cancerous tumour on the face of modern storytelling.

There are other ways to tell a story than the standard three act set.

Your blue-pilled, Rick and Morty loving, coworker in the next cubicle is technically correct. (5) Star Wars: The Last Jedi actually did something completely different. A HOLLYWOOD MOVIE DIRECTLY SHAT UPON THE JOSEPH CAMPBELL MONOMYTH.

And when someone who watches a lot of movies (most of which have the same plot timing) they immediately notice that something is new and different even if they can’t quite put their finger on it.

Of course attacking the monomyth is simply a prerequisite to shitting on and destroying the entire rest of the Star Wars mythos (6) but that’s another topic entirely.

But at least we now have an explanation for the critics reaction and the ratings split. Movie critics were so overjoyed by the subversion of the Monomyth that they subconsciously forgave the sins of an otherwise terrible movie. The mass audience on the other hand did not.

End Notes:

1 Among other things as a Space Navy League loyalist I found the tactics portrayed in The Last Jedi to so stupid and nonsensical that I took it as a personal insult.

2 Soy Wars: as in all the meat has been removed and replaced with filler. Also T-Levels are dropping at an alarming level.

3 As opposed to the Deep Geek who specializes in a small number of niche hobbies and gains mastery over them. Shallow Geeks are the guys you see on The Big Bang Theory. Deep Geeks are the guys discussing the differences between Dominions 4 and 5 and whether or not a blessed Jotun Scout Rush is a viable strategy with the new commander recruiting mechanics.

4 Not always a sure thing.

5 The best kind of correct.

6 Hollywood never understood Star Wars or why people enjoyed those movies. I continue to hold that the real genius of Star Wars was having a setting that was epic (galaxy spanning) in scale but where one man in a starfighter could make a difference. Of course you need actual heroic characters for that.

Other Links:

Bradford C.Walker further explains what he means by Narrative Warfare.

http://empiresmustfall.blogspot.ca/2017/12/narrative-warfarethe-last-jedi-cultural.html

The Mixed GM/ Not John Daker offers suggestions on how to put out the dumpster fire.

https://themixedgm.wordpress.com/2017/12/16/the-last-jedi-how-to-fix-it/

My suggestions involved having a movie start off with a fighter pilot duel between Diversity Wedge and an First Order ace played by Nicolas Cage.

Also Twi’lek dancing girls…

—Wolfman Out—