30 Day Film Challenge-Day 12

​A film that you hate from your favorite genre

This is such a hard category for me, and probably the one I struggled with the most when coming up with this list. The whole idea of picking something from my favorite genre is that I love pretty much anything from that genre. Picking my least favorite science fiction film is like picking my least favorite child. I love them all, even though they are all different. OK, maybe not quite like picking between my kids, but you get the idea.

That said, I had to land on something for this category and it came down to two films from this franchise. I had been trying to steer away from Star Wars on this list as much as possible because I could easily fill just about every category with one of those films and be happy. But that would get boring and I wanted to have some variety. That said, I think this is probably my least favorite of the entire series, and that’s saying something with films like The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones to pick from.

My main problem with The Last Jedi is that is suffers from the same ailment as The Empire Strikes Back, but in a way that detracts so much from the story that I can’t ignore it. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Empire Strikes Back, but if you stop and think about it, there is a bit of a continuity issue with Luke spending a bunch of time training with Yoda (is it weeks? months? Who knows?) and the rest of the crew (Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO) are simultaneously on the run from the Empire. Granted they have to travel slowly due to a malfunctioning hyperdrive, but does that mean it will take them weeks/months to get to Cloud City? Perhaps, but it doesn’t feel like that in film time.

Jump forward to The Last Jedi and we have similar storylines where Rey is training with Luke on a remote planet no one can find, Finn and Rose are off to find a random gambler (this is starting to sound REALLY familiar) and the core group is being chased by the bad guys in big ships. While Empire deftly sidesteps the concept of time and the different durations that might take place in that film, The Last Jedi almost explicitly tells you how long it will be before the Resistance fleet has before it is overtaken and how long Rey spends with Luke. It isn’t necessary and hugely detracts from the story.

Aside from the time aspects, I also abhor the waste of characters in this film in particular (but also the sequel trilogy as a whole). Captain Phasma should have been cool and a better replacement for Vader than Kylo Ren, but she’s relegated to a fringe role in this film and given a very unceremonious death. Supreme Leader Snoke is a poor fill-in for the Emperor, especially since we find out one film later that the Emperor isn’t completely gone. On the side of the good guys, Admiral Holdo feels like the light side version of Phasma, filling a plot point in this film and that’s about it. She doesn’t even get a cool tag-line like Admiral Ackbar (think traps…).

From top to bottom, this film undermined The Force Awakens in many ways and diluted the product that could have been in The Rise of Skywalker. I have long been a proponent of giving J.J. Abrams the reigns for all three sequel films, just as George Lucas directed all three prequel films. Those three might not be perfect, but at least they tie together and tell a somewhat cohesive story without diverting too much attention to side quests and rabbit holes. I still love Star Wars, but The Last Jedi could have been so much more and for that it gets selected as a film I hate from my favorite genre.

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is currently available on Disney+.

Day 11 – A film you like from your least favorite genre | Day 13 – A film that put you in deep thought

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