Star Wars: The Last Jedi - a podcast by Chris, Sean, Jeremy | Force Fed Sci-Fi

This time, we’re continuing our look into a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars: The Last Jedi and along the way we ask, why does Sean hate this film so much, just how toxic are Star Wars fans, and what exactly is the theme that Rian Johnson is going for? Let’s explore this far away galaxy...
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Crew and CastWritten and directed by Rian Johnson: Johnson has been the subject of a previous episode on the show (please check out Looper), but we feel like he kind of dropped the ball this time around given his convoluted mix of themes, plot lines that remain unexplored, and a disregard for the narrative set forth by The Force Awakens.

With the exception of Harrison Ford, the entire cast from the first film returned including Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis and Domhnall Gleeson.Several new characters were cast in the film including:

Laura Dern as Vice Admiral Holdo: Dern is an incredibly accomplished actress, but it seemed like her character only served the purpose of clashing with Poe Dameron and it’s only a disservice to her talent (she was previously covered on our Jurassic Park review, check it out if you get a chance)Benicio Del Toro as DJ: Del Toro may be phoning it in this time around. His character has a stammer and almost seems to act as this foreshadowing device for him being a traitor/snake. Rian Johnson almost considered this part being portrayed by the character of Lando (after all, just like Han, he once was someone looking to make some money). We're glad Rian Johnson did not go this route. Check out more about Johnson's thought process on this idea here. Another question though, did he end up getting killed in the explosion? We think most likely, but I suppose you never know (we didn't actually see it!)
Kelly Marie Tran as Rose: Tran drew the most criticism of any actor in the film, but it wasn’t directed at her character or her use in the film. Instead the attacks were directed to her personally. We should reiterate that faults with the film lie with the filmmakers and not the actors themselves unless there is a legitimate argument to be had. We think she did a fair job at her part (not great, but certainly not terrible .. again blame can be put on the filmmakers too). Similarly to Daisy Ridley, Tran ended up deleting her Instagram account because of all of the harassment. No one should have to go through that, but we praise Tran and our host Chris has a crush on her?? Haha, just kidding everyone!Finally, as with the previous seven films in the series, John Williams returned to compose the soundtrack for the film with adding another amazing addition to his Star Wars score repertoire.
What Went Wrong: Was The Last Jedi Terrible as So Many Believe?There’s a lot to unpack with that sentence. For starters, we want to point out that setting this film as a direct sequel to The Force Awakens probably did not help the story (where as we kind of think The Force Awakens jumped too far). What aided the classic trilogy as well as the prequel trilogy was there was maybe a few years passed between all of the films. This allowed for the characters to develop independent of what was shown on screen as well as for events to unfold that the audience did not require a full explanation to understand.

This can be summed up best in the opening of the film when the Resistance has to flee their base despite having delivered a significant blow to the First Order by destroying Starkiller Base (how did the First Order reorganize so quickly!). This is then followed up with Poe dropping a Mom joke on General Hux. If you’re scratching your head after reading that, you are not alone (although our producer Jeremy enjoyed Poe's jokes up until the'mom'part ..."Hi I'm holding for General'Hugs'... Ok I'll hold").

The whole tone of the film feels off compared to what we just saw in The Force Awakens,

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