atomicheavybike:

I just saw a The Last Jedi defence post on my dash that I found Very Annoying, so rather than hijack it, here’s my extremely important opinion on the subject:

Giving viewers what they want isn’t a bad thing. In fact, in a popcorn movie – particularly a franchise movie – giving people what they want is precisely what you should be aiming for. And doing it isn’t easy – what viewers want generally includes a coherent plot, fun characters, exciting action, twists turns thrills spills and the like. There’s a reason not everyone is a successful Holywood screenwriter.

A movie that gives people what they want is almost definitionally a success. And here we have The Force Awakens. It gave people what they wanted, and it it was a massive hit and a solidly decent movie.

A great movie, though – that’s a movie that gives people what they didn’t even know they wanted. That’s much harder, and very few Hollywood blockbusters manage it. 

And then you have The Last Jedi. TLJ did neither of those. Instead it mocked viewers for wanting what they did and smugly told them they ought to want what it offered instead – which many of them definitely didn’t. That’s why it is a failure both as a Star Wars movie and a work of art. (Well, that and the shonky plotting, terrible pacing, weak character work and abysmal world building.)