Popcorn Champs. The Popcorn Champs examines the top-grossing movies in America every year since 1960. We can trace the history of blockbuster cinema and maybe answer a question Hollywood has asked for over a century: What are people looking forward to seeing?Luke Skywalker is disillusioned. He knows that the world wants him back. This young woman, who has spent the entire movie trying to find him is intriguing. But he also knows why she's here. Luke Skywalker will take over his role as mythic Jedi knight. He is supposed bring back hope to the galaxy. Luke is convinced that his status has brought ruin and death on the people he loves and he doesn't want any of it. Rey tells him he won't teach her and he looks at the door to an ancient Jedi temple, which is framed in silhouette. It reminds John Wayne from The Searchers. It's time for Jedi to go.AdvertisementThis moment occurs in Star Wars: The Last Jedi early in 2017, the movie with the highest grossing film of 2017. It's not surprising. The Force Awakens was the previous Star Wars movie with main storyline. It had cleverly hid its own storyline flaws. The Force Awakens trailers conveyed a feeling of mood, while keeping the details of the plot ambiguous. This is J.J. Abrams. Rian Johnson, the new director of Force Awakens, had other plans. This line from Luke SkywalkerIt was time for the Jedi's end was in the last shot of The Last Jedi's teaser trailer. It was marketed as the whole point of the movie, and that is more or less true.Johnson was given a nearly impossible task with The Last Jedi. The Force Awakens, which was released two years prior, made box office history by appealing to the nostalgia of those who, like Johnson and Abrams, grew up with Star Wars. The Force Awakens was pure nostalgia, and it enjoyed the familiar comforts of its source material. This was what people wanted. The Last Jedi was something different. It was an attempt to make an anti-nostalgia Star Wars, but it was probably doomed.Luke Skywalker, in The Last Jedi isn't the only character that wants to see the Star Wars legends' old symbols rot into dust. Kylo Ren feels exactly the same. Kylo Ren argues passionately against the binary of light and dark sides. He tries to convince Rey that he sees things his way. If you must, kill it. Thats the only way to become what you were meant to be. And later: Its time to let old things die. (This is coming from a young man who has killed both his beloved-cinematic-icon father and his rasping, evil authority figure. This is not figurative death.AdvertisementElsewhere, Yoda's ghost, an ancient figure that first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back in The Empire Strikes Back, echos the same anti-tradition sentiment. The Yoda in question looks familiar, but it's not. Although he is a puppet made of green foam rubber, the spectral glow surrounding him makes him seem a little like a CGI effect. Yoda makes a persuasive case for his own obsolescence in an uncanny, out-of-time manner. This is the true burden of all masters. George Lucas had just sold his childhood dream-saga to a huge global corporation. He was openly hopeful that the corporation would do something new with it.The Last Jedi does not attack nostalgia. The movie's dramatic ending shows Luke Skywalker joining the Resistances fight. He does this by leveraging his legend status. Luke is aware that Kylo Ren, the First Order and his family fear him. So he stands there and watches them blast at him. Luke enjoys the horror of the bad guys when they realize that they haven't killed him. It's all a game. Luke is not there. He is an astrally projected Hologram and uses all his energy to place himself there. He is buying time to allow the younger heroes to escape so they can live. After his last act, Luke is gone and his empty cloak goes to the ground. Although the constant excitement surrounding Luke Skywalker, an old hero, was useful, it also served as a means to an ending. It wasn't the main point of the movie.AdvertisementThe commercial success of The Last Jedi was no surprise when it came out at the close of 2017. A Star Wars movie was the most popular at the box office for the third consecutive year. This was no triumph. This was to be expected. Star Wars films no longer competed with every other movie that came out after Rogue One and The Force Awakens. They were simply competing with one another. The Last Jedi earned $620 million domestically, slightly more than Rogue One and a lot less than its direct predecessor The Force Awakens. The live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, which was just $100 million shy of surpassing The Last Jedi as 2017's second-highest grossing Disney property, came in at just over $100 million. This was clearly a disaster for Disney.The backlash was the main story in the weeks following The Last Jedi. A vocal minority of The Last Jedi's fans were furious despite all the money they made. This diverse group had many problems with The Last Jedi, including the comedy attempts and general lack of wokeness. Kelly Marie Tran was the worst offenders. She made her film debut as Rose Tico in The Last Jedi and quickly became the subject of a torrent of online harassment. Disney made it all right when the Trans role was cut to an extended part two years later.As far as I can tell, the biggest problem for disgruntled fans was Rian Johnson's Star Wars version. It worked against what they had in their heads. Luke did things Luke would not do. Leia did something that Leia could not. The whole arc strayed from the Star Wars old good-vs..evil narrative. They even dare to question that narrative. Yoda had used Force ghost powers to demolish an old Jedi temple using lightning. Nothing was sacred. (This seems to still be a gaping injury for some people. J.D. Vance, the Senate candidate, and Netflix biopic subject, tweeted that The Last Jedi was a cruel film not only because it destroyed Luke but also because it ruined Yoda.Disney responded to these fans by throwing the entire Star Wars universe into an uncontrollable tailspin. The company had already thrown all of its plans for the final movie in the Skywalker-saga trilogy, The Last Jedi, down the garbage chute before it opened. Colin Trevorrow was announced as the director for the final installment. Anyone who had seen The Book Of Henry knew that this plan would not work. To close the deal, Disney quickly rehired J.J. Abrams and did everything it could to eliminate the ideas Rian Johnson brought to the series with The Last Jedi. The problem was not that The Rise Of Skywalker was Abrams' closer trilogy, but that it was a shrill, incoherent and boring spectacle. We were actually watching a movie franchise at war, its directors acting like graffiti artists trying to cover up each other's mistakes.AdvertisementOne could argue that Johnson wrote over The Force Awakens, just like Abrams did later over The Last Jedi. Johnson saw Supreme Leader Snoke (Abrams inert bad) as an obstacle to overcome and cut him in half, rather than building him back up. Johnson also dismissed Abrams mystery-box plots completely. Rey wasn't the heir to a family line of Jedi power. She was a nobody and the Force was strong enough to support her, regardless of lineage. (Abrams would attempt to rescind that decision in a disastrous way. The Resistance also bought its weapons from war-profiteer lowlifes, who supplied the First Order. Many people would have been delighted to never see their ships at warp speed in space. The old narratives passed down from previous generations had been treated by Abrams as sacred text. Johnson clearly enjoyed burning these texts.Despite being in constant internal conflict, the Star Wars sequel still managed to entertain, at least until it stopped. The Last Jedi, despite its bold ideas, is an excellent movie. The performances are outstanding. Mark Hamill, who has been absent from live action films for a while, gives some of his best acting as the disturbed-old man version of Luke Skywalker. (Hamill openly admitted his doubts about Johnson's ideas, making him an unexpected rallying point for angry fans. Adam Driver displays a heightened intensity for Kylo Ren than is evident in the text. The war-film bombing of the opening, the intense color of the throne room battle, and the silent sacrifice of Holdo maneuverare some of the most stunning images that blockbuster cinema has ever attempted.The Last Jedi, Carrie Fisher's last film before her death, has its own emotional stakes. There are a few moments where it seems like everyone has an inkling that this film is a goodbyeLuke. Leia and her friends sit down with Fisher to assure them that they never really left. She reportedly wrote much of the dialogue herself using her script-doctor skills, and she is credited with many of the best lines in the movie. The meta-narrative was not responsible for the actors' deaths, which occurred one year before The Last Jedi premiered. The meta-narrative can overwhelm everything with the Star Wars movies of today.AdvertisementThe Last Jedi is a blockbuster movie that's full of ideas. It can sometimes be a bit clunky. Blockbuster movies weren't designed to be delivery vehicles for ideas. The grammar of 21st century tentpoles, the crowd-pleasing action hero moments, and the mandatory breaks for comedy, doesn't always allow Johnsons statements to shine through. Rose Tico, who is the only new character in The Last Jedi, and Finn are the most relatable characters from The Force Awakens. They spend most of the film on a pointless narrative side-quest that ends up being a failure. Many people were upset at these scenes, including John Boyega. He felt like he'd been written off. They gave all the nuance and nuance to Adam Driver and all the nuance that Daisy Ridley. Let's be real.He isn't wrong. The Last Jedi doesn't give Finn Boyegas much of a storyline. His storyline serves one of the ideas Rian Johnson wanted to convey: war, even when it is noblest, still tends serve the interests those in power. Was that clear? It made sense in this context. I'm not sure. It was fun to watch Finn and Roses on the casino planet. However, I also got a bit antsy after Benicio Del Toro arrived, with his accent sometimes sounding like Bobcat Goldthwaite.This is The Last Jedi's dilemma. This was a hugely profitable corporate entertainment project that kept Star Wars flames burning. It also helped Disney sell lots of stuffed Porgs. My 9-year old daughter has one. It's adorable. The Last Jedi is messy and ambitious. Disney is not known for trusting directors and gave Johnson the reins to direct and write his Star Wars. The company could only undo the damage done after The Last Jedi was out. Perhaps Disney did not realize Star Wars had become a vehicle for ambitious ambition. Although I don't believe The Last Jedi works every time, Johnson was able to make Disney's long-term plans a mess.He was happy with the outcome. Knives Out, his second movie, was not a huge hit, but it did make Last Jedi money. Knives Out is both a moviegoing experience and a declaration of class conflict. It's a lot more successful than The Last Jedi. Johnson seems to be creating his own Netflix mini-empire from that success. Bravo!AdvertisementThe Rise Of Skywalker, Disney's next Star Wars movie, was not a flop. They were not the highest-grossing films of 2019, however. Star Wars has been able to once again establish itself as a great setting for a TV western. Disney isn't ready to give up on Luke Skywalker completely. The Mandalorian shows that Disney has learned some of the lessons Johnson taught Luke. These old stories are not taken too seriously. It's having fun with them. Blockbusters are supposed to be entertaining.The challenger: Each of the top 10 grossing films of 2017 was a part or a franchise. And the best know how to make their franchises work. The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. and Marvel movies are the best. Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man Homecoming balance their snappy banter, world-building fantasies, and daddy issues well. Wonder Woman and Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle both manage to achieve a Marvel-style balance between comedy and action, with the latter often leaning towards the former. It's a great movie, Jumanji. My favorite of these hits, however, is the one that recognizes the potential that the franchise has never realized before.Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok hits all the Marvel-movie mark, while putting his own brand of absurdist deadpan comedy in what appears to be a psychedelic drawing by a pinball machine from the 1980s. Ragnarok is a proof that the vision of a director can work in the context Marvel-style spectacle. Ryan Coogler provided conclusive evidence a few months later.AdvertisementNext time: Black Panther was 2018's biggest domestic earner, but I wrote a lot about it recently. Instead, we'll be talking about Avengers: Infinity War, the astral doom opera.
