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Freddie deBoer's avatar

Since a couple people have asked - the title is just a joke playing on the title of Ross's linked post. Just having a little fun.

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Daniel T's avatar

Even though I disagree so much, the Star Wars posts are a "drop everything and read immediately."

I would like to stake out a place for those of us with the centrist, and I believe correct, opinion on The Last Jedi: there's nothing wrong with it conceptually, it just sucks. What it is theoretically trying to do is fine. It just happens to - with the exception of one scene - alternate between boring and cringe.

I struggled to get through it in the theater and my reaction afterwards was "holy shit that was boring, and cringe." Upon every repeated viewing I feel identically. I want to like it, but I can't. Yeah, Freddie is right about all the big things, but it's just boring. And cringe.

Freddie is, however, completely correct about TFA and I've been fighting this battle for six years and am not sure if I'll ever win. That was a "walk out of the theater thinking it was okay but with a nagging feeling" experience. Freddie is right about the problem. It makes the first six meaningless. I'm not a prequels defender, but I think Revenge of the Sith (at least the second half) is brilliant and the most emotionally draining movie in the bunch. It's just nonstop slaughter and failure and sadness. But you know that, in the end, it'll be okay. That Annakin isn't done being the good man he once was. That Obi Wan and Yoda still have a part to play. That the Emperor loses. To undo all that is unforgivable. Fuck JJ Abrams. The Force Awakens wasn't as boring as The Last Jedi but it's truly awful.

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