Nullifying the happy ending of Return of the Jedi is the least of the Sequel’s problems. Now we go to the movie that arguably killed the Sequel Trilogy: The Last Jedi. Much has been written about the sins this movie has committed against the canon of Star Wars. An entire subreddit is dedicated to dissecting this movie’s flaws. What else can be said about it?

The Last Jedi, in fact, showcases the second fatal flaw of the Sequels: their utter lack of artistic ambition. Allow me to explain myself.

One of the major themes of The Last Jedi is its notion of Light and Dark being somehow equivalent, which then leads to a subtle deconstruction of not only the two previous trilogies (where Light was unambiguously good and Dark unambiguously evil) it also deconstructs the entire mythos of Star Wars. This theme is placed front and center during Snoke’s speech to Rey: “Darkness rises, and Light to meet it.” According to The Last Jedi, the conflict of Light and Darkness is not only eternal, but it’s so by design; the Light and the Darkness will ALWAYS balance each other out, and one will never be able to be rid of the other.

But what does The Last Jedi do with this concept? Nothing! It presents the idea, does nothing to prove it wrong, but then ignores it altogether. Just as the audience is expecting Rey to realize that Light and Dark are one and the same and that the whole Jedi-Sith conflict is pointless, she instead buckles down and chooses to repeat this endless cycle of Light/Dark conflict. Instead of joining Kylo Ren and building something new, she chooses instead to bring back the Jedi.

One of the most haunting lines of the movie’s trailers was “it’s time for the Jedi to end.” This was THE selling point, the question that had millions wondering what could have led Luke to utter such nonsense. Then in the movie Luke goes on to explain:

“Now that the Jedi are extinct, they are romanticized, DEIFIED. But if you strip away the myth and look at their deeds, the legacy of the Jedi is failure. Hypocrisy, hubris.”

This could be forgiven for being a commentary on how the Jedi Council failed to notice the Sith for over a thousand years, and how the most powerful Sith Lord in history (Sidious) far too often sat in front of and met them under his guise as Grand Chancellor Palpatine. It could well have been a commentary on how, during their final years, the Jedi did NOT keep the peace in the Galaxy, and instead LED troops into war, using living clones as soldiers while their opponents used lifeless droids. One would think that the movie was directly asking the audience if the Jedi really ARE the good guys.

But the movie doesn’t make this point; instead, these are the cynical ramblings of a man who abandoned his friends, family, and the Galaxy that depended on him over one failure. These venomous words don’t come from a man who searched history looking for wisdom, they are the justifications of a bum so he won’t have to take responsibility for said failure.

It’s quite telling that, at the end of the movie, Luke makes it a point to say “I will not be the Last Jedi.” Again, the Jedi are the good guys, again the Light is unambiguously good and the Dark unambiguously evil. All is back to how it was before.

So why bother even exploring this idea? Why go through an entire movie that seemingly debates the equivalence of Light and Dark, only to lazily return to its own Status Quo at the end? Because, at the end of the day, Status Quo is God.

A good look at the Disney cinematic library will reveal one common element: their movies, magical as they are, are also unchallenging. Their movies do not cause discomfort at their audience, much less invite them to think. In contrast, Star Wars has always been challenging.

In 1977, the USA was bitter and cynical. Watergate proved to them the President could be shady and crooked, and the Vietnam war shattered their illusion of being a force for good in the world. Most cinema at the time reflected this cynicism, having most of its heroes be “cowboy cops” who often broke the rules to get the job done. Star Wars challenged this cynicism with a tale of unapologetic heroics and idealism. The end result was an endearing movie that still holds up forty years later.

When 9/11 happened, it broke America’s brain. People no longer felt safe in their own land, and suddenly the word “terrorist” and “Islam” became part of every day talk. In the year 2002, the Spider-Man movie had said wall crawler jump across rooftops adorned with giant American flags, a reflection of the fervent patriotism felt (and enforced) at the time. In contrast, Star Wars was telling a tale of liberty dying, eroded away by a manufactured war driven by profiteering and manipulated by those with an agenda.

Now, in the 2010’s, what tale is Star Wars telling that can be considered challenging? What is this trilogy’s ambition? Simply put: none except make more money to Disney. One cannot even claim that the new trilogy’s ambition is to be progressive, seeing as how every non-white character has been denied the chance to make an impact on the story.