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'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Negative Buzz Amplified By Russian Trolls, Study Finds (hollywoodreporter.com) 447

bestweasel writes: The Hollywood Reporter highlights an academic paper which finds that half of the criticism aimed at director Rian Johnson over Star Wars: The Last Jedi was politically motivated. From the report: [Researcher Morten Bay's paper] titled Weaponizing The Haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation, examines the online response to the movie that has come to be considered controversial amongst the larger fanbase of the franchise. Bay suggests that reputation may not be earned, and instead "finds evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments." He continues, "The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society. Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation."

The paper analyzes in depth the negative online reaction, which is split into three different camps: those with a political agenda, trolls and what Bay calls "real fantagonists," which he defines as genuine Star Wars fans disappointed in the movie. His findings are fascinating; "Overall, 50.9% of those tweeting negatively [about the movie] was likely politically motivated or not even human," he writes, noting that only 21.9% of tweets analyzed about the movie had been negative in the first place. "A number of these users appear to be Russian trolls," Bay writes of the negative tweets. In response to a tweet announcing the release of the paper, Last Jedi director Rian Johnson shared the tweet, adding, "Looking forward to reading it, but what the top-line describes is consistent with my experience online."

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'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Negative Buzz Amplified By Russian Trolls, Study Finds

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  • by mdhoover ( 856288 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:41PM (#57414366) Homepage Journal
    Not the fact the movie was shit and just happened to piss all over one if the franchises most beloved characters, totally wasting any opportunity to use Luke Skywalker in any interesting capacity before unceremoniously killing him off.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Note it says amplified, not that there wasn't justifiable criticism.

    • Not being a movie maker I can't say why, but the younger folks at my job like it and the old timers who grew up with the 1st 3 movies hated it. That's the thing, it's mostly young folks going to see movies. So they make moves for them. Not us.

      As for Luke, as last Gen's hero he pretty much had to die. Same as Kenobi. I suppose a much, much better writer could have bridged the gaps, but that's a risky and Herculean task I can't blame Disney, or Ryan Johnson, for not trying.

      Oh, and if we could just get
      • I'd kill an Ewok for a remake of the X-Wing and Tie-Fighter games.

      • Luke can die, like OB1 and Yoda, as the wise old sage, who has evolved to pure 'goodness' of the Jedi, just as he had become at the end of ROTJ.

        Luke was (about to) become a kind, old, wise Jedi. So re-visiting Luke in his old age, while cheesy and predictable, would've been best him being like those 2.

        Instead they messed with the old hero, also he's straight, white, male, so you know, fuck they better not make him wise / kind / thoughtful / good, hell no.

        The Last Jedi is dogshit.

        I stopped caring about St

    • I watched the original and loved it, and I also liked Last Jedi. It wasn't the crap that so many people claimed it was.

      • by youngone ( 975102 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @07:23PM (#57414648)
        I have also seen both, and the Last Jedi will be the last Star Wars movie I ever pay to see, it was that bad.
        12 year old me in 1977, coming out of the theatre after seeing Star Wars would be shocked to hear it, but the whole thing just has no value any more.
        I was shocked at how poor the Last Jedi was, from the lazy, poorly structured plot, to the way it lifted entire scenes from the earlier movies, even using the same scene three times.
        Terrible.
        • by Jack9 ( 11421 )

          I had the exact same reaction. The people I joined to see the movie, expected a terrible movie and agreed they got it.

          This study says things like....

          > Approximately one in three negative fans express misogynist, anti-progressive, anti-social justice or conservative views.

          Since all the data is from specifically from a few Twitter accounts, this "academic paper" seems to be nothing more than an ironic troll.

          • I didn't even look at the study.
            I didn't hate The Last Jedi because of women, or liberals, or racial minorities, but because, despite costing many, many millions of dollars to make, it was just cheap and shoddy.
            It killed one of the great memories of my childhood, but I suppose that's just part of life.
            I'll get over it.
          • The people I joined to see the movie, expected a terrible movie

            ... and you all saw it anyways. Get a life. And tell those "people" who you joined to get lives too, if you ever see them again and happen to recognize them.

            I'll tell you what, when I go out for entertainment, either me or somebody else I'm with is expecting to have a good time. That's the whole reason we're there. Maybe that's the part that was broken, and not anything about the movie?

    • Not the fact the movie was shit and just happened to piss all over one if the franchises most beloved characters, totally wasting any opportunity to use Luke Skywalker in any interesting capacity before unceremoniously killing him off.

      You almost make me wish I'd seen it.

  • by iMadeGhostzilla ( 1851560 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:41PM (#57414370)

    For an example just look at the hearing last week.

    Unless it's Russians all the way down.

  • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:43PM (#57414384)

    Not interested in Disney's fanfic anymore. Made the mistake of seeing The Force Awakens. The plot was just a fan-service rehash of the original Star Wars and Rey was an annoying Mary Sue. So I just stopped giving Disney my money after that. Didn't make a YouTube video bitching about it or anything. I just stopped buying their toys and seeing their movies. Problem solved.

    • by Mike Van Pelt ( 32582 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:55PM (#57414462)

      Rey is overpowered, definitely, but I didn't really have a huge problem with that. Kylo Ren is way overpowered, too, and way too deserving of the title "Darth Emo", though he was better in The Last Jedi.

      That ridiculous Leia doing the Kryptonian sleep-flying back to the ship after getting explosively decompressed, modulo some blast damage from the weapons that tore the bridge apart... What were they thinking?

      The utter stupidity of *dropping* bombs *in space*... *were* they thinking? Seems unlikely.

      On the whole, I like the actors. But their performances were ill-served by the writing and directing. The whole thing was completely disjointed. It just felt sloppy, beyond the above stupidities. (None of which were the actors' fault.)

      "But.... Russians!!" is the last refuge of the compleat idiot.

      • by mentil ( 1748130 )

        The 'dropping bombs' thing made me think 'wait a minute', and then a few seconds later I realized they were just propelled out the bomb bay. Which is how I'd expect bombs to be deployed in space. I think people are unnerved because missiles/rockets/torpedoes are the normal method of explosive delivery in space, in sci-fi.

      • I've been referring to Kylo Ren as Douche Vader.

        And who the hell is this purple haired twat that just suddenly appeared in the story line as a main character with no backstory or anything? Since it seemed her only purpose was to bonzai the ship into the bad guys, they could have saved the cost of one actress and saved Ackbar for that. Since they were going to kill him off anyway, why not have him volunteer to go down as a most hero instead of an "Oops WTF" death?

      • Rey is overpowered, definitely, but I didn't really have a huge problem with that.

        No one has a problem with someone being overpowered. People have a problem with the character development which makes them magically solve problems without effort. It creates a story with zero intrigue and a character which is incredibly hollow.

        But their performances were ill-served by the writing and directing.

        This is the new Starwars in a nutshell. Characters driven by a plot that makes zero sense. Not just developmentally (Mary Sue Rei, or the Leia stupidity) but also who make decisions that make no sense (a small resistance leader withholding critical plan details from

      • I lost it when they left the ship to go to Space Monte Carlo and do a side quest... Wait, you mean they can just fucking get on a ship and leave without the Discount Empire noticing? Why don't they all abandon the ship and go to Space Monte Carlo? Maybe find some legit parking so they don't get thrown in jail too. Hide out with the arms manufacturers seeing as how the Discount Empire is unlikely to attack the people that supply them.

    • by nyet ( 19118 )

      TFA was a masterpiece compared to the pile of trash that is TLJ.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:45PM (#57414394)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:46PM (#57414400) Journal

    Messing with elections is one thing, but messing with Star Wars is going way too far.

  • by FilmedInNoir ( 1392323 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @06:47PM (#57414406)
    "The paper concludes that while it is only a minority of Twitter accounts that tweet negatively about The Last Jedi..." Oh so everyone else's opinion is valid then. It was a crap movie.
    "more than half are bots, trolls/sock puppets or political activists using the debate to propagate political messages supporting..."
    Yeah I know, I've been flooded with posts of FeministComicNerd, GenderFluidMovieRanter, and MarySuePenisHater about how Last Jedi is the greatest movie ever and
    that Asian chick is important to the story and not at all to pander to Chinese audiences.
  • But we are made of sterner stuff than that.

  • What possible benefit does Russia gain by spamming bad reviews for a movie?

    • What possible benefit does Russia gain by spamming bad reviews for a movie?

      Makes their people feel at home on Slashdot.

  • by SensitiveMale ( 155605 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @07:06PM (#57414532)

    because that movie sucked ass.

  • Had nothing to do with Leia flying through space.

  • by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @07:15PM (#57414600)

    I really never got The Last Jedi freak out, Sure, there was the admiral with blue hair who for some unexplainable reason left her crew hopeless rather than tell them where they were going. And sure, in a civilization with sentient robots for some reason she needed to piloted a suicide attack against the chasing fleet. And sure, if that attack is so devastating why aren't there weapons that do that?

    In the end though, at least the movie wasn't a fucking carbon copy of one of the original trilogy movies. The second it came up they were going on a third fucking Death Star run in The Force Awakens (complete with: "another Death Star?", "No! It's bigger, see...") I have had no use for that movie. What a terrible ending.

    Rogue One is still easily the best of the new movies (that scene where the rebel fleet warps in right on top of those two star destroyers!? And a hammer head corvette doing its thing in action!?) but Last Jedi really wasn't that bad. Especially relative to just fucking copying a classic.

    • And sure, in a civilization with sentient robots for some reason she needed to piloted a suicide attack against the chasing fleet. And sure, if that attack is so devastating why aren't there weapons that do that?

      Yeah, you hit one one of the prime reasons. Why bother building expensive X-Wings and training expensive X-Wing pilots when you could take any thousand year old personal shuttle that can make lightspeed, put a thousand year old droid in control, and use them to disable/destroy a Star Destroyer. W

      • by skam240 ( 789197 )

        "Yeah, you hit one one of the prime reasons. Why bother building expensive X-Wings and training expensive X-Wing pilots when you could take any thousand year old personal shuttle that can make lightspeed, put a thousand year old droid in control, and use them to disable/destroy a Star Destroyer. Why didn't Alderaan's defensive fleet (they must have had something) all go Kamikaze on the Death Star within a minute of it dropping out of orbit. Why bother building a Death Star when you could load up some ancien

  • by Octorian ( 14086 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @07:16PM (#57414608) Homepage

    The main thing that really bothers me about The Last Jedi, is that all the hate and trolling has managed to pretty much taint any and all actual criticism of the movie. You're now no longer allowed to be critical of anything in the film, without being labeled a misogynist, part of the "toxic masculinity", or whatever the trigger words are these days. Heck, I've even heard that some characters were written in such a way that you'd automatically labeled "part of the problem" if you don't like them.

    Do I think the movie had issues? Of course I do. Are there characters I didn't like? Yes. Did I at least somewhat enjoy watching it? Also yes.

    But do I think it was a terrible pile of garbage that everyone involved should be ashamed of and harassed endlessly over? Absolutely not.

    But I now somehow feel awkward and uncomfortable actually expressing any criticism.

    • by roc97007 ( 608802 ) on Tuesday October 02, 2018 @08:42PM (#57415004) Journal

      > The main thing that really bothers me about The Last Jedi, is that all the hate and trolling has managed to pretty much taint any and all actual criticism of the movie.

      Hm. It's almost like that was the intention.

    • by vux984 ( 928602 )

      "But do I think it was a terrible pile of garbage that everyone involved should be ashamed of and harassed endlessly over? Absolutely not."

      The chase scene with the ships running out of fuel was ridulous. Like it had been cribbed from a WW2 naval script and nobody asked if it made an iota of sense in space. (And I'm not talking real physics, but it fails to fit even in Star Wars fictional physics.

      Then the highest ranking twit in the rebel alliance has to stay on board to steer the last ship because what they

    • The main thing that really bothers me about The Last Jedi, is that all the hate and trolling has managed to pretty much taint any and all actual criticism of the movie.

      Riiight. In the same way that if you questioned Obama's drone strikes or bank bailouts, you were in the same camp as the people who questioned his birth certificate.

      Because reasons, because false dichotomies.

  • The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society. Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement

    Just curious why the alt-right movement would bother creating discord & dysfunction? I'd think every political movement would want to send a narrative of "things are broken, and only we can fix them" and there are always countless examples that already exist, so there's no reason to create new ones.

  • So the opening of TLJ has a serious tone, with the rebels escaping from the surface. A few minutes later a serious live or die attack on the dreadnought is turned into spaceballs. I honestly had to wonder whether I was in the right theater. Then the slow moving bombers drop bombs. No shields. And apparently the dreadnought attracts bombs. WTF?

    Basically the entire story is that the entire rebel fleet is reduced to about a dozen people and a single small ship. Oh, and the supreme leader is killed - so the who

  • We don't need trolls to do this, Hollywood has long been in the business of producing films to influence political opinion in the US. I guess if they push liberal agendas its ok (The First Purge, The Trump Prophecy, and Fahrenheit 11/9 are currently playing at the theater close to me) .

    But, personally my biggest complaints about the movie were just the shear number of times I was yelling at the screen for the characters to do the logical thing. You know, like tell the hot shot renegade and the whole cre
  • Generations of fans will review a bad movie and tell the world about their thoughts. In real time using social media.
    The real reviews by fans are shared and linked and show what the bad movie is all about.

    Reviews did not make the bad political movie script the way it was.

    What good reviews?
    1. Write a great script and listen to the fans who will be happy to support a movie they enjoy.
    Use the fan base. They really want to write good reviews and tell the world how much they liked a new movie.
    A bad
  • This century is when Russia finally found what it's good at. Or, more to the point, it knew all along - but the skill was not in demand until now. Only with the world fully interconnected the last piece of the puzzle fell into place.
    Russia has never been much for productive development. But ability to endlessly argue for the sake of an argument and troll is ingrained in the culture and the language. It was not of much use before when any information produced locally stayed local. Now that they have world-wi

    • To wit: When you don't have abs, pecs, or ceps, show your dick. If your dick is small, just moon them.

    • ( Unstoppable force / immovable object ) * internet

      I'm not convinced we have to live with it. With regional internets on the rise, the future might just see them unplugged.

  • Go to Youtube.

    Search Last Jedi

    Apparently all the Russian Trolls have excellent English and live in America as American citizens.

    Look, if you agree with Disney's and Hollywood's political agenda of feminist superiority, fine. But I know a lot of what the Russkies have done, and the meme is even getting tired for me. What is interesting is the same old same old blame everything but the possibility that you made a politicized movie with a not so good story line that simply isn't enjoyable to watch.

    Esp

  • And people are surprised there was a backlash on political grounds? That film was asking for trouble.
  • The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society.

    So it was the trolls who argued that it was a good movie?

    Because I've yet to meet a person who thinks it is, so that clearly is not the majority opinion of the non-trolls (or at least the non-paid trolls).

  • Obviously this is a nefarious plot to destroy American culture by taking down the Star Wars franchise. Will the country survive?? /sarcasm

    If Rocky and Bullwinkle returned to TV, this could be one of the story lines.

  • If the conclusions are accurate, and more than half of the negative comments belong to trolls, I have to say that in this case, the trolls have it right. The current incarnation of Disney seems utterly devoted to sucking all the joy, edginess and originality out of their movies to deliver serviceable but soulless flicks that are barely adequate as a Friday night time-waster on any half-decent home entertainment setup. But after a Friday night out at the theatre, you leave feeling ripped off. I can see so

  • Di$ney doesn't really give two shits about the quality as long as it brings in profits.

    The Last Jedi was so bad I didn't even bother to see Solo. Just done wasting money on it at this point.

  • Plenty of left-leaning bots licking his "white cis male" balls for this "work". Facepalm.

  • The so-called russian trolls and bots have had their fun, playing fast and loose with lofty western ideals such as democracy, fairness, honesty, etc, and undermining our precious freedoms.

    Now they've decided to fuck with the mouse. They should have sent someone to spend a few months embedded as cast or crew at a Disney resort or park, and learned just what happens to anyone tarnishing the image. They won't know what's hit them.

  • Honestly, with all these trolls having such *based* opinion these "investigations" into their activities are just making me a fan of Russian trolls.

  • ....yes? [me.me] Oh, I was late for work the other morning - the Russians must have been involved. Justice League was a shitty movie - must have been the Russian's fault.

    Because reasons.

    Not that TLJ is an objectively shitty movie. The whole lightspeed ram that wrecks 40 years of continuity. Why build a Death Star when you can get a few junk freighters and use them as mass drivers against a planet? Why did the Alliance bother with those Death Star plans when a half dozen Kamikaze runs in quick succession could

  • Unpossible. (Score:4, Funny)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @08:43AM (#57417220) Journal

    We made it PRECISELY according to the committee-approved 'Star Wars action film' formula, how could it not be perfect?

    I mean:
    When the focus groups showed kids found it stultifying, we added cute little things that were optimized for cheap production according to our Vietnamese factories. They are perfectly designed by slave-labor engineers to be adorable.
    When the focus groups showed Asian viewers thought it was stupid, we bolted onto the story a pudgy Asian chick, hopefully snagging the 'all body images are positive' demo as well.
    We made the lead character a woman because powerful vaginas are super-trendy now.
    We added gay dudes because well duh, you have to have gay people in an adventure.
    We employed only faceless mediocrities, pretty much just like George Lucas did (except we did it so we could lock them into lifetime contracts of servitude).

    WE EVEN MADE THE BAD GUY A WHITE MAN. How could that possibly be wrong in 2018?

    We clearly hit all the IMPORTANT mechanics needed to make a perfect film; it had to be Russians that fucked this up.

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