Criticism of Star Wars: The Last Jedi has been rampant ever since its theatrical release. People hated so many things about the movie (obvious spoilers): Rey’s parents, flying Leia, Luke’s demise, the casino scene, the list goes on and on. There’s even a petition to have Episode VIII entirely stricken from Star Wars canon.
It’s safe to say that Rian Johnson’s vision didn’t coincide with fans’ (or with Episodes VII and IX director J.J. Abrams‘). However, most of the perceived “mistakes” in the film are actually more of a difference of opinion than genuine errors.
But this one most definitely falls under the category of Whoopsies! In the scene in which Rey and Kylo Ren team up to fight the Red Guards, Rey is engaged in a battle with one of Snoke’s crimson warriors. The guard in question has two short, dagger-style light sabers, one in each hand. That is, until the peeps in the editing room realized that he could have easily killed Rey with the dagger in his left hand.
So, how do we fix this? Reshoot? Change the choreography of the fight? No, let’s just make it magically disappear! That’s literally what happens. It’s there, and then it isn’t. We weren’t supposed to notice. But one eagle-eyed viewer caught the gaffe, and shared it on Twitter in GIF form. Behold, the amazing Vanishing Dagger of Plot Device! (Must roll a natural 20 to hit. -10 on all backstab attempts.) Or maybe Rey made it vanish with her Jedi Mary Sue trick.
Choreographer: “but sir, as cool as it may look, if the red guard has two knives he could just stab Rey in the back”
Director: We’ll just edit one out half way through the move, no one will notice.
FX Guy: Done. pic.twitter.com/5FbmvwoTr2
— Paul Blank (@TheLocalGod) April 3, 2018
Personally, I find a lot of the criticism of this film to be nitpicking for nitpicking’s sake. We all went in with expectations because Star Wars, and those expectations weren’t met for many of us. We just need to chill and wait for the trilogy’s conclusion. But this one is clearly a case of “we’re too lazy to fix it, so let’s just pretend it didn’t happen.” On a movie this size, with this massive budget, there’s no excuse for such an easily rectified mistake to make it into the final cut.
Did you get a chuckle out of this goof? Tell us in the comments!