THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS. THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS. THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS.
I’ve recently come back from the latest Disney money grab from a franchise that really should have stayed unedited at three movies.
Before going into this film I made sure that I saw no trailers, I read no reviews, nor had I spoken with anyone who had seen it before me about the movie – not even regarding their thoughts of liking it or not.
After the progressive love fest that was Rogue One I wanted to give the main story arc the benefit of the doubt. No bias, no expectations.
Sad to say, my effort in avoiding all trailers and spoilers was a waste of energy because the movie not only took a blue pill on social politics, it downed the whole bottle! The equality button was pushed so hard that the entire bridge of the “protagonist” Resistance’s main starcruiser was all female. A female commander was replaced by another female. A new protagonist is introduced – an [ugly] Asian female. The one white male, who, in The Force Awakens was useful and a bit of a badass, is now a bumbling fool who’s every plan needs to be rescued by… you guessed it, a female.
Now let’s jump ship to the “antagonists”, the First Order. Their bridge is all white males. The main bad guy (who was much less impressive and scary than the impression given in The Force Awakens) is a balding, mangled, perverted white male. The guy who betrays the resistance… you guessed it… white male.
I’m all for equality; let the ship bridges be mixed, let a commander be female, whatever! Just make it proper equality, men, women, Wookies, on both sides. When social politics gets in the way of art then you’re killing art.
I think it would be remiss of me to mention that the movie advocates the violent actions of leftist protesters and ANTIFA, rampaging through what is essentially Space Vegas (of which all the police there are white males, I might add.)
Social engineering aside, the movie was lackluster. It has some nice twists and I love the Star Wars universe, however when I go to a movie I want to be absorbed into that world, something many films in Hollywood fail to achieve these days. If I’m consciously stopping myself from grabbing my phone or if I’m looking at my watch wondering how long the film has been going, that’s not a good sign.
Final thoughts on the film: I give it a resounding Meh. it has nice effects, cool fight scenes, some comedy, but it didn’t tie together well enough for me to want to see it again. If you want to see the film, wait for it on Netflix or pirate it. It’s not worthy for the cinema.