Posted on 12/16/2017 4:32:19 PM PST by EdnaMode
Well, it's hard to say anyone saw this coming. Star Wars: The Last Jedi has finally arrived in theaters and fans are super excited about it. Or, at least they were. There was a ton of hype leading up to the release and, deservedly so, considering all of the questions Star Wars fans had after watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens two years ago. However, things are not going according to plan, as The Last Jedi now has a shockingly low audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. How low? Believe it or not, it's even lower than the score Justice League currently has.
This likely comes as a huge surprise to anyone who was following the news leading up to the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Following the movie's world premiere, the social media reactions were almost universally positive. That led to an incredibly positive first wave of reviews from critics. The movie currently holds a 93 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is great and ranks among the highest in the entire franchise. However, audiences don't seem to agree with critics on this one, as the audience rating is at an abysmal 56 percent.
To say the least, this is not what Disney, Lucasfilm or director Rian Johnson had in mind. To put that in perspective, Justice League, a movie that isn't what one would call a critical darling, currently boasting a 40 percent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, actually has a much better audience rating. As of this writing, Warner Bros. latest DC movie has an 80 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This is just one example, but in both cases, we see that audiences can dramatically disagree with critics. Though, in the case of Star Wars, this is pretty unprecedented.
As hard as it may be to believe, as of this writing, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is actually the lowest-rated movie, in terms of audience rating, in the entire Star Wars franchise on Rotten Tomatoes. It's close, but Star Wars: Attack of the Clones barely edges it out at 57 percent. The Phantom Menace is next, with 59 percent. Considering how much Star Wars fans seem to hate those movies, it's pretty amazing that The Last Jedi is ranked so low by those who have seen it. But it's also worth noting that critics were much closer in alignment with fans on the prequels, as Attack of the Clones has a 66 percent Tomatometer score and The Phantom Menace has a 55 percent.
So what does this mean? The audience score could change as more people see Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but at the very least, this is a divisive movie. That could be problematic, as Lucasfilm has already handed Rian Johnson control of a brand new Star Wars trilogy, which he's going to plan out and will direct at least the first installment of. Given Lucasfilm's rough history with directors, having fired Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the Han Solo movie and Josh Trank from Boba Fett, not to mention this issues with Rogue One, can they really afford to have another director kicked off of a project?
That's not to say audience reaction will ensure that's going to happen. But Disney and Lucasfilm will have to take that into account, even if Star Wars: The Last Jedi dominates at the box office, which it looks like it's going to. In any case, this Rotten Tomatoes score for Star Wars: The Last Jedi is very interesting, as pretty much everyone expected this movie to be a home run for the franchise. There are no sure things in this business.
I just saw it. It was EXCELLENT!!!!
Maybe this will force them to reconsider their idea of making parts 10-12 at the non-end of this repetitive space opera.
Lemme guess, time to build another “Death Star”.
Rotten Tomatoes is a contra-indicator in my book.
I thought it was okay. Pretty much in line with many of the other Star Wars movies. I wouldn’t say it was the best or worst. Probably somewhere around a 7 on a 1-10 scale.
Is Luke Rey’s father?
Does Rey turn to the dark side?
Rotten tomatoes is no longer reliable. Mostly trolls.
There is no winning that game.
Saw it on opening night. The Last Jedi is easily the best Star Wars movie since The Empire Strikes Back. It's dark and daring, not afraid to defy expectations, and it's also got lots of well-timed humor. This movie rattled the cage hard and maybe that's why some people can't take it.
It also seems to have backpedaled away from the social justice crap. By the end of the film it looks like that "Poe and Finn gay romance" is not going to happen. Maybe Disney got the message: most of their box office is coming from that massive swath of red across America last election. And a lot of them are families who will NOT want their kids to see a "Finn and Poe Husband and Husband 2-Figure Set" on the pegs at Toys R Us.
I thought the last one was better than the prequels (which isn’t saying much) but well short of the originals.
A friend of mine is taking his kids to see the latest one tonight. He’s hoping to replicate the 1977 experience he had seeing the movie with his dad. I trust his judgement on movies so will be interesting to hear his verdict.
Kathleen Kennedy should give complete creative control of the next trilogy to Peter Jackson.
Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker, himself, hates it. Good enough for me.
An improvement over The Force Awakens is a low bar to get over.
I give it a B minus. For one thing, it was too long.
There are also no really good memorable new characters.
Kylo is 1/1000th the villain that Darth Vadar was. But of course there will never be any villain who is in the same league as Darth Vadar.
Carrie Fisher looked like an 80 year old woman with ill-fitting dentures, very sad to see her that way. Leia was always a feisty spitfire, there was none of that spark in her character.
Never put any stock in rotten tomatoes - entire premise is a joke - you’re right - trolls. I’m no fan of any SW movie made after 1984 (or whenever Empire was made).
The movie was way too long and the entire part with Space Vegas was pointless. Every part with Mark Hamill was great though. Really the RT score is ridiculous...critics have it at 92% (at a 8/10 average) and audiences have it at 55%.
How does a professional critic say “its better than Empire Strikes Back”? Thats absurd.
Just like the audiences hating on it is way overblown. Its an average film.
I just saw on Deadline that some bots affected the score.
“Lemme guess, time to build another “Death Star”.
Those empire dudes will never learn.
I don’t know....is it just me? Or is 7 years old a bit young for such visual mayhem?
I confess I am really on the fence as to whether I liked it or not. It is a remake of the Empire Strikes back, with some Return of the Jedi thrown in. It also reminds me of the remakes of both Robocop and Total Recall. The remakes kind of hit the same plot points as the originals, but go off on different tangents, for no logical reason other than to be different from the original. It left me with kind of a confusing blend of nostalgia and boredom.
But there were some good parts, including Luke's opinion the Jedi should just be allowed to end. The opinion that the force creates an endless conflict of light/dark kind of mirrors Disney's decision to pump out Star Wars movies every year. So I guess the dark side is really a metaphor for Disney.
It’s a fantastic movie. However, it will divide fans, no doubt about that.
(Just like Empire Strikes Back did when it first came out. It took time for people to realize it was the greatest movie in the franchise).
I think time will vindicate Last Jedi. It’s a controversial movie that challenges Star Wars to go in an unexpected direction. Fans typically don’t like that sort of stuff at first.
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