The Last Jedi Is The Batman v Superman Of Star Wars
https://screenrant.com/star-wars-8-last-jedi-backlash-batman-v-superman/
To suggest a kinship between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Batman v Superman is sure to rile up fans and detractors of both tentpoles equally, but may actually be the key to understanding why the pair have proven so divisive; and tell us the real problem with the so-called “fan-critic” divide.share
If you were wanting to compare Episode VIII to one of the Batman films, the obvious parallel would be The Dark Knight. It’s a sequel, the second of a major reboot, that’s altogether bigger than what’s came before that takes a mature look at its well-established heroes and why they really do what they do. And nobody would disagree that Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren is the best blockbuster villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker. But when you break it down, there’s an unexpected film in the Caped Crusader’s pantheon that it’s closer to.
On paper, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice would have been The Dark Knight of the shared universe era. A deconstruction of both its titular heroes – a highlighting of their fundamental dichotomy – full of icon-shaking turns, it aimed to expand the proto-DCEU and provide a grown-up experience but instead wound up one of the most divisive films of the 2010s: seemingly for every fan claiming it a masterpiece of cinema, there was a detractor ready to decry it a genre folly. Now, why does that sound familiar? Since its release, The Last Jedi has become marked out as the most-divisive entry in the saga, with effusive reviews made to seem all the more positive thanks to an extreme fan backlash. Considering it too was coming from a high-reaching place, the similarities already begin to come to light.
To make clear, we’re not going to be comparing the films on any subjective or artistic level, rather take in how The Last Jedi and Dawn of Justice have, against all odds, ended up in the same area of the pop culture discussion – and why this is very important for mainstream cinema going forward.