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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 8571873">I think fandom has become more tribal politically though as well. I remember in the 80s and 90s, I never thought of star wars as particularly right leaning (I thought of it as vaguely left, from the part of the 60s hippy crowd who got into eastern mysticism). I think what set it apart from a lot of the stuff from that era though was its optimistic tone and it wasn't overtly political. And the prequels did seem to have a stronger political message (that was certainly not right leaning). Whereas Star Trek has always been very political. But even then, I knew tons of conservatives who loved star trek. One of the things I liked about science fiction was it often felt like a meeting ground for a wide variety of viewpoints because it is built around thought experiments. I knew conservatives who didn't agree with Gene Roddenbury's world view, but would stick around to hear what he had to say.Something I think has become extremely unhealthy is art being used divisively and used for us to identify which political tribe people are in. You saw this with star wars and ghost busters especially where a lot of criticisms, was just deflected by big media companies, by making them into political issues. Yes, some people did bring their politics into the theater and into their reaction. But there are perfectly non-political reasons to love the Last Jedi, and perfectly non-political reasons to dislike it. You can also agree with the political message of a movie, while thinking the message detracted from the film or was handled poorly. But the whole conversation seemed to get boiled down to if you like it you are a progressive, if you don't like it you voted for Trump. A lot of nuance was completely lost in the cultural conversation around star wars at that time. For me the last jedi was the first film I intentionally waited 6 months to a year to watch so I wouldn't be influenced by that, and I think it made a big difference. My view was some of the political messaging felt heavy handed (and I didn't necessarily disagree with many of the messages), and some of them undermined parts of the film (making Hux the butt of a slap stick humor, for instance, may have sent a message, but it weakened the character as a threat and villain in the story). But I enjoyed it. It was a fun movie to watch. I also really liked the Rose Tico character and I was a little confused that that love story didn't turn into anything by the final film (honestly if I have a political gripe with the new star wars trilogy it is that they seemed to reject the idea of interracial love: to go back to your star trek example---and I think the reason they did avoid that storyline was purely about profit). I also felt some of the dialogue was too meta (the whole kills the past speech felt a little on the nose to me and it wasn't the character speaking but the script writer). My main criticism of Last Jedi as a movie, isn't the film itself. It is that as the second film in a trilogy it threw a wrench into things. I think that franchise either needed to be written and directed entirely around the vision of Last Jedi or entirely around the vision of The Force Awakens. It just didn't work as a three part movie, and a big reason for that is the second film. But I don't blame Rian Johnson for that. I think that is on Disney for not having a good plan from the start.</blockquote>

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