The annoying thing about these 139 pages is being told the same thing after critics clearly express that their reasons for not liking the film are not what boosters say they are.
For example the expectations thing. It’s a no-brainer that there were hopes/expectations, whether about visuals or tone or character development. If you walked in with no hopes/expectations, that would be weird. But the idea that so many fans wanted very specific things and that’s why they didn’t like it is wrong.
Many critics have made that point repeatedly here. If Luke was godly and perfect I would have been dissapointed. If Rey were his daughter, more disappointment. Maybe those could have been done in a way that was palatable but I think those things would be poor storytelling and not where I’d hope the story would go.
As has been said so many times, it’s not just that Luke was a thousand lightyears from hopes, but poorly executed. A lot of us didn’t buy the reasons. It is about judging the story on its own terms.
Many things that bother people didn’t bother me that much (if at all): lightspeed ramming, Yoda lightning, Leia in Spaaace, even Canto Bight to some extent.
Story concept and execution, character development, and humor were poor. That there are supposed to be deep themes if you use the right lens doesn’t save it for me. Okay, cool, I’d say, but it still wasn’t done well.
The arguments for why character development or story were done well are fine and dandy. Probably not convincing after seeing it with our own lying eyes, but okay. The you-only-hated-it because you had specific expectations is wrong and boring.
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