Okay so I'm not defending myself here, well not exactly. Every new installment of an old franchise I particularly like is something I perceive as doing something new and interesting that hadn't been done before, at least not in the same way. And that has often been key to how I've praised them on this blog.
But that's the thing, this "criticism" itself is a subjective one. Unless it's literally just a re-release of the original then an argument can be made it's doing something different. However it still has to also be the same in some way or else why is it being sold on it's connection to this older thing to begin with?
For me some franchises I desire more consistency from then others. If it's the Batnerd in me you're trying to attract then I can accept just about anything from Silver Age silliness to R rated edginess. Pokemon meanwhile I do pretty much always want to have the same basic formula and tone.
But mostly this post is gonna be about Star Wars. I'm as tired as you are of using Star Wars as the case study for topics like this, but it's kind of unavoidable.
Almost every Disney Star Wars project has indeed been perceived both ways on this issue, from their Main Trilogy to Rogue One to The Mandalorian, each has been condemned as shameless Nostalgia pandering and praised as a bold new experiment/innovation.
But it's particularly people who love The Last Jedi while being highly cynical about what's come since that feel this compulsion to shame Star Wars fans who feel the opposite as only wanting Star Wars to remind them of their childhoods. But the truth is that's what they want too, the only reason to care about getting more Star Wars at all is because simply hearing that music makes you feel like a kid again, they just have a different idea on how a new Star Wars should rekindle that childlike wonder, opposing ideas of what should change and what should stay the same.
But if you genuinely need a Space Opera to be completely unlike what Star Wars has ever been to be worthwhile to you then stop watching ones with Star Wars in the name.
It's not just the way TLJ is criticized that is dependent on comparing it to other Star Wars material, everything it's praised for is exactly the same way. There are no Expectations to Subvert if you haven't seen any prior Star Wars movies.
I don't hate The Last Jedi anymore, but I am still annoyed at how often it's praise is about how it's a borderline "Deconstruction". People are obsessed with Deconstructions nowadays, Renegade Cut thinks the Superhero genre hasn't been deconstructed enough while many of us are tired of hearing about how Superheroes would actually be a bad thing in every other Superhero project we get.
Ya know why Watchman is the best Superhero deconstruction? Well one reason is because it was done with new original characters. It didn't start out that way, it started out with the idea of it being the Charleton characters, but it was for the best that Moore wound up creating his own similar yet different characters.
When Alan Moore actually wrote Superman stories he didn't deconstruct Superman, he affirmed Superman. And his Batman stories are the same, they are dark because that was the standard for Batman comics at the time, but Mortal Clay is about how Batman is a good compassionate person. And even The Killing Joke as much as I don't like it is not deconstructing anything. If that story was written not by Moore but some hack trying to imitate Moore then The Joker would have succeeded in proving his point.
Deconstructing the idea of Superman or Batman in an officially sanctioned DC project is fundamentally insulting to those characters and their fans. Now it may be unfair to accuse TLJ of being like that. But no one thinks it's wrong for Superman fans to simply want Superman to be Superman. Yet when it comes to Star Wars that suddenly is considered something to be ashamed of.
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