🎥 MMLA 2023 Presentation: Thoughts

In November, I presented a paper called “Expectations and the Value Problem in The Last Jedi: Film Against a New Age of Television" on the Reception Studies panel. Below is the abstract for that paper:

     It is no secret that fan reception of Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi was split; many hated the story and character decisions but felt the film at least looked good while it botched the important stuff, some hated it from beginning to end, others thought it was fine and some even loved it. The big thing, though, was director Rian Johnson’s response; the claim that he was trying to subvert the audience’s expectations took this split reception to a whole new level, as fans railed against him for “tricking them” and “ruining their childhood.” Even Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) took issue with Johnson’s writing initially. Though John Boyega (Finn) and Oscar Isaac (Poe) tried to shift the conversation (and blame) to Disney as a studio, Rian Johnson’s name continued to be raked through the mud, even after the final installment, Rise of Skywalker, came out and fans considered it to be notably worse than Johnson’s film. So why is Johnson receiving all the blame? Why is there seemingly this consensus that the worst Star Wars film is The Last Jedi—despite it getting more favorable reviews than the film to follow, and others in the saga? In this presentation, I will examine Johnson’s directorial choices and fan reception to those choices and highlight the key issue with audience expectations as they pertain to the film’s value; in the end, I aim to also showcase how these same problems do/did not affect other Star Wars projects, namely the television shows, when intuitively it seems they should. This will hopefully clarify what exactly occurred with this film so that we may study similar issues when it comes to other films and series more successfully.

My fellow panelists had incredible presentations--one on Harold Pinter's "Dumb Waiter" and Dr. Kelsey Squire, one of my undergraduate professors, presented on Shirley Jackson's work.