1 Comment

  1. Adil Burney

    Hi Alan

    TLJ: Not to relitigate this as a movie (to each their own, however, every time I watch it, it worsens for me). TLJ BADLY divided the fanbase. Yesterday’s TLJ kerfuffle made that clear…Between the OT gen JJ (meta), Hamill (“Jake”, “appalled”), Daniels, Ackbar, and the new gen Boyega (“iffy”, “that story”), Ridley’s many shady TLJ comments and even Isaac, it’s obvious that even the crew’s view ranged from hate to meh. (Maybe Carrie Fisher liked it?)

    This week, I went to an office holiday party. 4 big SW fans at my table, admittedly all 40something OT men: Every one of them HATED 8. I was almost an apologist. My teenage son: No one in his friend circle liked 8. Tbh, I have not met ANYONE (in real-life, not internet) that told me that they even LIKED 8. I saw it 2x in the theatre. Both times, on departure, the audience seemed to be in a funk. Very different response than leaving TFA, even with the Solo death which had some audible sobbing.

    Ironically, it is the TLJ lovers that are the vocal minority. Rotten Tomatoes score (43% audience score!) can not be conveniently dismissed as Russian bots. Read the audience comments on RT. As JJ basically said diplomatically, you can’t subvert all the things that matter to fans (and the crew) and expect people to be happy. This is not racism or sexism that TLJ lovers trot out (I’m of Asian descent, love Rey, Sabine, Ahsoka, Finn). You can’t make our hero Luke into a dark hermit with milk dripping from his beard and expect everyone to be cool with it.

    So, why even bring this up again, with ROS 1 week away? I’m basically praying that JJ will heal some of the TLJ divide in ROS, let’s see Luke not Jake Skywalker, and hopefully give this trilogy a raison d’etre for changing the RoTJ conclusion (beyond making $ for Disney; nothing wrong with that, I own shares).

    Dave and Jon: Please continue the great work on Mando and Clone Wars. Please do an Ezra, Sabine, Ahsoka, Thrawn series. Deborah Chow and Ewan, I’m so excited about Kenobi… Someone please give us a SW movie set in the Old Republic. Give us animated young Luke, Leia and Han post ROTJ.

    Disney, please just don’t let Rian Johnson near SW ever again. Let him do his bold choices, subversion and beautiful cinematography elsewhere and win Oscars and do a Knives Out trilogy….And Kathleen, thanks for giving us TFA and R1 (both great movies with female leads; R1 was loved at my Xmas party), Mando and Clone 7. But with poor story choices in TLJ, this clunky trilogy lack of coordination and the constant director turmoil (Trank, Treverow, Edwards, B&W, L&M), it’s time to move on from both KK and RJ… I have no doubt that Iger, the best CEO out there, will do this very tactfully and respectfully in early 2020…

    Thanks
    Adil

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