I haven't seen a Star Wars movie since falling asleep during The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, so I'm indifferent about the franchise as a whole and about the latest episode, The Last Jedi, specifically. I don't care who the characters are or which actors play them. What I do care about, however, is the social justice messaging Hollywood pushes on moviegoers and the contempt for, and accusations of bigotry against, viewers who resent being lectured to.
Case in point: writing for Wired.com, Angela Watercutter self-righteously and gleefully declares that "'The Last Jedi' Will Be Too Inclusive for Some People. Good." That means you, intolerant traditionalists. She hopes you're offended by the film's overt identity politics. After all, "The Last Jedi isn’t here to appease the old guard."
No, it's here to virtue-signal and to smash the white supremacist patriarchy. Deal with it!
Watercutter thumbs her nose not only at Star Wars fanboys who have issues with the film, but at "the so-called alt-right" who resent the diverse cast, and also at "the misogynist, racist, classist, dark side of the populace that’s always been present, wielding power in one form or another." In case you don't get the hint, that "dark side of the populace" is Donald Trump voters: "The movie isn't here to Make the Galaxy Great Again," she sneers.
What is it that the left has against greatness?
In addition to attacking viewers who aren't "woke" enough for her, Watercutter manages to get in a jab at male chauvinism (noting with disgust about character Kylo Ren, son of Han Solo and Princess Leia, that "the stench of his toxic masculinity only intensifies in The Last Jedi") and the rich (pointing out that "the one-percenters on [the city of] Canto Bright [sic] achieved their wealth by selling weapons... They’re war profiteers").
In support of her contempt for conservative viewers, most of whom don't actually care what sex or race the characters are as long as the movie is entertaining, Watercutter cites Star Wars creator George Lucas' statement that "George W. Bush is Darth Vader and Dick Cheney is Emperor Palpatine. But [The Last Jedi] writer-director Rian Johnson’s movie seems to be turning those covert ideas into overt messages—first by portraying a universe with a more inclusive cast of characters, and then by making them actually talk about what it means to 'resist' (aka be in the Resistance) and how to achieve those goals."
"There may always be people who don’t want more broad representation in cinema, who would rather things stayed the same, or even reverted," Watercutter concludes, bravely standing up to all the bigots in her imagination. "This isn’t going to happen with Star Wars, so perhaps it’s time that those people take a piece of advice from Kylo himself—and let the past die."
I haven't seen the film, but it sounds like the only thing all this heavy-handed "relevance" to contemporary politics is accomplishing is intentionally alienating viewers who aren't actually bigoted but just want to be entertained without having the left's racial/gender agenda rammed down their throats.