Should Kathleen Kennedy be let go from the Star Wars megaproject?

[Karha of Honor]

But that still doesn't explain how the film got good reviews from critics.

Critics like the movie, I have no problem believing that. They approach these and other blockbusters in a significantly different way than fans do. Deconstruction and subversion are right up their alley, and a lot of them just aren't going to be as concerned with issues like continuity, worldbuilding, or whether the old crew are in character.

In a way critics are both easier and harder to please- Marvel movies can consistently get 85-95% on rottentomatoes, but aren't winning industry awards or appearing on "best of the year" lists (neither did The Last Jedi). Critics might enjoy what The Last Jedi did, but a lot of them aren't going to take it (or most other genre films) all that seriously. I think that's why many were taken aback by the passionate (or vitriolic, depending on who you're talking about) reaction to the film.

Kotor 2 is deconstruction done right. Why did they not see this as a badly executed deconstruction?

[Yukaphile]

^ He's right, you know.

KOTOR 2 is a deconstruction done well. The Last Jedi is just a hateful meta-narrative, as Geekdom calls it.

Hell, KOTOR 2 is not only my favorite game, it's my favorite piece of the Star Wars brand. And it's the treatment of Legends I utterly despise from Lucasfilm and her direction. They really want to have it both ways. Do new things with the feature films and the new EU, yet tie Legends to it to appease the old Legends fanboys. It doesn't work that way. All they're doing is throwing in little Legends easter eggs that don't amount to much, and by cherry-picking what they call "the best elements" to put in their so-called "respected" new canon, it's just pissing off the hardcore fans who spent decades pouring their hearts and energy into contributing to the old EU. The reasons they give for terminating it are bullshit. The new EU canon is getting trashed by the movies, so it's just as inconsistent as the old EU. And they are adamant that they won't include "beings dead to the Force" in the new EU, so that means no more Vong, nothing like KOTOR 2 where the Force could be stripped from you. I can't stand it. Either make Legends into its own separate but still canon continuity that's just on hold, or stop throwing in these little Legends references and getting them wrong, like rename Korriban freaking MORBAND or getting the look of Malachor V wrong. All they're doing is pissing off the fans in every direction. And it takes a special kind of talent to enrage both the old fans with your wishy-washy "go both directions" tactics, and the "let's do something loud and boisterous and offensive" with the new material approach for the movies.

[Worffan101]

This is one area where the new films, and in some ways the franchise, fall flat on their face. The political moments in the films arent there to tell a story, but to lampshade the opinions of the creators. Pansexual Lando, woke droid with the Leet Speak name, The Force is Female, Wendigs identity politics pandering, the focus on female characters and the bashing of the fandom when we call them lame. It's been one thing after another.

...I actually really liked Glover's Lando, his relationship with the droid, and honestly the lady droid. She was a riot.

And I loved Rose (before they screwed her over and made her into Finn's love interest ex machina anyway) and while I didn't give a damn about Jyn Erso, I didn't give a damn about her boytoy, either; it was the minor characters in Rogue One that carried it.

Honestly, for me it just comes down to bare-bones nuts-and-bolts storytelling, where TLJ fails hardest of all the new movies, and JJ Abrams's inability to understand size.

Clearly. So clearly that the beam travels at visibly sublight speeds and you can somehow see the explosion of five planets from half a galaxy away on Maz Kanata's planet not just instantly, but clearly in the day-sky and those five planets are visibly so far apart from each other, that Maz Kanata's planet has to be in the very same system that the explosions are happening in, yet isn't. It's a bunch of badly thought out hogwash that undermines the story-telling and it's indicative of what is going on in the creation processes of other parts of the story, namely: A whole lot of no thinking.

This is a common problem for JJ Abrams. He has absolutely no concept of scale and instead uses the Rule of Cool for things like this, even when it undermines the believability of his story universe. The lack of realistic consequences ruins the tension and creates massive plotholes. Star Trek 2009 demonstrated this same blindspot.

This^^^^

Abrams's bullshit literally broke my suspension of disbelief during the system-destruction scene. At least Lucas's BS was covered up by good pacing and smart creative decisions (in the original trilogy at least), Abrams (and, as shown by the MU arc of STD, his proteges) believes in BIGGER and MORE SIZE and FLASHIER until it becomes a joke.

[Yukaphile]

What's so awful about Lando being bi or something? We need more bi and gay characters!

[Madner Kami]

What's so awful about Lando being bi or something? We need more bi and gay characters!

Do you even realize how utterly meaningless this and patronizing this statement is? Why do we need more bi and gay characters? Why does Lando need to have any sexuality at all?

[unknownsample]

What's so awful about Lando being bi or something? We need more bi and gay characters!

Well it's implied that he's pansexual, this has caused fans to lose their shit, although since causing Star Wars fans lose their shit all the time this isn't exactly a surprise. When compared with Captain Jack Lando's positively restrained.

[Fianna]

If you're fine with ships catching on fire while in outer space, I don't see why the visuals of the Starkiller attack are such a problem. The physics and worldbuilding of Star Wars has always been about throwing a bunch of cool stuff together, whether or not it makes any sense.

[Madner Kami]

A burning spaceship, that could either be on fire by using the ship's own oxygen supplies as an oxidizer, some other form of oxidizer derived from the superheating of the ship's very own components or simply being something fire-like, like a plasma, doesn't break the very story of a movie. A weapon that redefines how warfare within the universe works however (and is not based on some new tech, like... you know, ramming shit at light-speed) or a weapon that brakes every rule of space and time and creates plotholes as a side-effect, is quite a different beast.

[Karha of Honor]

What's so awful about Lando being bi or something? We need more bi and gay characters!

Well it's implied that he's pansexual, this has caused fans to lose their shit, although since causing Star Wars fans lose their shit all the time this isn't exactly a surprise. When compared with Captain Jack Lando's positively restrained.

Jack who?
I don't think SW fans lose their shit that easily. I just think they had bad franchise ownership since 1977.

[TGLS]

Jack who?

The bi-guy from Torchwood.