Star Wars

[vector7]

Saw the film last night in 3D IMAX.

I came away sad and disappointed with a new appreciation for Lucas.

Spoiler alert, don't watch the videos below if you have not seen or plan to watch the film.

[Ryan Ruck]

You know, I've seen that feeling on it elsewhere too.

I haven't seen it yet but will be waiting for it on home release.

[vector7]

Woke Flashback Projecting Damage Control:

Russian trolls targeted ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi,’ study says

By Tamar Lapin

October 2, 2018 | 12:51am


Mark Hamill and Vladimir Putin. Getty Images

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The “Last Jedi” was taken down by the ultimate Sith Lord — Darth Putin.

The 2017 installment of the “Star Wars” franchise was reputedly widely panned by fans online — but much of the criticism was actually coming from Russians trying to sow political discord, a new study has found.

“A number of these users appear to be Russian trolls,” researcher Morten Bay found.

Bay analyzed all the angry tweets sent to director Rian Johnson over seven months immediately following the film’s release.

The negative reaction was split into three groups: those with a political agenda, trolls and real fans.

“Overall, 50.9 percent of those tweeting negatively were likely politically motivated or not even human,” said Bay, a research fellow and Ph.D. candidate at USC.
Out of the 206 negative tweets, 33 were sent by trolls and/or “sockpuppets” — a fake identity used for deception — Bay found. Among the trolls, 16 accounts appeared to be Russian.

One of the accounts believed to belong to a Russian troll tweeted Johnson 13 times over three weeks that he had “ruined Star Wars.”

The purpose of the nefarious anti-Jedi plot appeared to be the same as it was during the 2016 US election: to further propagate “a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society,” Bay writes.

Bay was able to pinpoint the Russian bots by using other papers describing the patterns of Moscow’s social-media influence during the American presidential contest and the UK’s Brexit campaign.

In his paper, “Weaponizing the Haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation,” Bay argues that the real response to the flick was actually much more positive.

“Organized attempts at politicizing the pop culture discourse on social media for strategic purposes are significant enough that users should be made aware of these measures, so they can act accordingly,” Bay warns.

The abstract of the paper was posted on ResearchGate Monday. It has yet to be published.

Since its release last December, the “Last Jedi” raked in $1.3 billion in worldwide box office take, becoming the second highest-grossing film in the franchise.








Now Full Damage Control: Anyone Critically outspoken on Social Media of this film are to be treated as Russian Trolls

'The Rise of Skywalker' takes off after the rise of the 'Star Wars' trolls

Analysis by Brian Lowry, CNN


5 days ago

"Star Wars" has always enjoyed a strong bond with fans, which has become one of its defining features. Yet as "The Rise of Skywalker" brings the original saga to a close, the rise of trolls threatens to fundamentally change that relationship.

The backlash against "The Last Jedi," the eighth movie in this particular series, turned inordinately vitriolic. While there are legitimate questions about how representative those voices are -- and indeed, what role Russian trolls and political provocateurs played in dragging the comments into the sewer -- the cacophony from social media has at times made it easier to simply tune out those voices rather than engage them.

It's worth noting that this appraisal comes from someone who harbored plenty of misgivings about "The Last Jedi," in contrast to much of the critical establishment. Some of the reasoned complaints about the film and the choices made by writer-director Rian Johnson, to these ears, made perfect sense.

The tone, however, became absurdly ugly, lashing out in ways that exhibited a loss of perspective -- forgetting that this is a fantasy controlled by a major corporation, there to be enjoyed, debated or disappointed about as such, but one over which no fan can claim personal ownership, however much time, money and energy they invest in it.

Johnson said then -- and more recently in a GQ interview -- that such voices represent a small subset of the overall pool. Still, writing in Esquire last year, Matt Miller lamented that a "loud section" of "Star Wars" fans have become "tragically synonymous" with hate and bigotry.

A study by Morten Bay, a research fellow at USC's Annenberg School for Communication, examined social media and found "evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments" about "The Last Jedi," in much the way outside elements have sought to further polarize political discourse.

That's troubling, to the extent it's true. But it only stokes the sense that abusive quadrants of fandom don't speak with one coherent voice, can't be mollified, and there's not much sense in trying.

That hasn't been the prevailing mentality among movie studios and TV networks, which court fans, seeking to turn them into ambassadors who will fuel passion for their properties, translating into sales of tickets and merchandise.

Disney has been especially adept in this regard, creating its own fan expo, D23, populated by talent from its movies and shows, mirroring massive gatherings devoted to all things pop culture at Comic-Con in San Diego and similar events.

Maintaining a dialogue with fans is perceived as being a good business strategy. Talent, including actors and directors, also use platforms like Twitter to speak directly to fan bases, bypassing the traditional public-relations filters.

That situation, however, has created problems for directors like Johnson and "Last Jedi" co-star Kelly Marie Tran, who was forced off social media by the misogynistic and hateful responses she received.

Johnson attributes the ugliest elements to a few bad apples, defending the wider fan base and warning against generalizing based on that. "On social media a few unhealthy people can cast a big shadow on the wall, but over the past 4 years I've met lots of real fellow SW fans," he wrote at the time. "We like & dislike stuff but we do it with humor, love & respect."

Yet as Wired senior editor Angela Watercutter noted after her own run-in with trolls, when some of those participating in a conversation -- real or digitally concocted -- are seemingly there just to stoke discord, "when it's impossible to know which sentiments are real and what motivates the people sharing them, discourse crumbles."

The release of another "Star Wars" movie is always an occasion, one destined to create strong opinions, pro and con. Fans also have avenues now to exult or vent publicly in ways that were scarcely imaginable when the first movie premiered in 1977, and Disney wants to keep them in a buying mood.

The rise of the trolls, however, hovers over "The Rise of Skywalker." And given the difficulty separating conventional heartfelt griping from bad-faith trolling, the best advice might come from another memorable science-fiction movie franchise -- remembering that in space, no one can hear you scream.


Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Was A Disaster Before George Lucas Fixed It

By Jonathan Wright 1 month ago

New rumors flooding the internet suggest that early test screenings for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker were disastrous and Lucasfilm had to bring in George Lucas to help fix the movie.

The last entry in the Skywalker Saga not only promises to wrap up the Sequel Trilogy, but also bring the ancient conflict between the Jedi and the Sith to its definitive end. One would assume that’s a lot of threads to weave together in a single movie, and they’d be right. It would seem that fans have been worried for all the right reasons, as a new rumor claims that early test screenings were so disastrous that Disney CEO Bob Iger promptly asked director J.J. Abrams to redo much of the film and even asked George Lucas to come in and make some changes.

Of course, we’ll file this one strictly in the rumor cabinet for now since it comes from a YouTuber with a questionable track record, but according to them, the test screenings were made up of hardcore fans, casual fans, and general audience members who were simply aware of Star Wars. The first version, which the YouTuber calls the Abrams/Kennedy cut, had the lowest average score (29), mostly due to a lackluster third act.
Spoilers to follow from here on out…

It’s said that one huge problem was when Rey destroyed Emperor Palpatine and essentially owned him in an “OP fashion” during their last battle. At that point, everyone burst into laughter and this enraged Iger, who was also present during the screening. He then proceeded to order a redo of the movie which brings us to the second cut.

Apparently, Iger specifically asked Abrams to bring in Anakin and Luke “in the flesh” (we’re not entirely sure what that means) and the revised version from Disney’s boss received a better score (65) in the following test screening. But that wasn’t enough, and George Lucas was then brought in to make some amendments.

The rumor suggests that Lucas incorporated elements from both versions and edited the finale, introducing a secret Skywalker in the third act. This garnered a much more positive reaction and received the best score (88).

We don’t know who this secret Skywalker is just yet, but we do know that Disney spent a whopping $300 million after the ‘meltdown’ to save the movie and do everything that was necessary to make sure it doesn’t flop. And while we can never be certain about the many rumors that plague the production of a juggernaut film such as this one, we should note that sources close to WGTC – the same ones who told us about the Rey/Palpatine twist in the movie, which has since been confirmed – have said that the report is at least somewhat true.

They can’t verify all of the details provided by the YouTuber, but they do confirm that early test screenings didn’t go as well as Disney had hoped and that Lucas was indeed brought in at some point to help Abrams fix the movie. From what we understand, they succeeded and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now testing much better. But I guess we’ll see for ourselves how things turned out when the film his theaters on December 20th.

Source: Comic Book News



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