You may remember two laughably misguided calls to boycott movies for political reasons last year: one targeted Mad Max: Fury Road and the other targeted Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It should come as no surprise to you that these dark, ugly nerd rage boycotts are back, and this time the target is Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Leading the charge on this boycott are a bunch of racists, white supremacists, and Donald Trump supporters. For some reason these people are angry about a movie that features a multi-cultural group of people fighting against fascist space Nazis. For some reason.
The neo-Nazis/white supremacists on Reddit believe Rogue One has an anti-white agenda while the Trump supporters on Twitter believe that the movie promotes an anti-Trump agenda. The neo-Nazi Trump supporters are especially angry, as you can imagine.
Like last year’s boycotts, none of these people have seen the movie. If 2016 has taught us anything it’s that baseless online rumors and deep resentments that stoke enmity are just as good as facts these days.
I get that 2016 has been an especially charged political year. Combine this with the increasing political climate of pop culture, geek culture, and nerd media prior to 2016 (e.g., Gamergate, Sad Puppies) and you have quite a powder keg of nerd rage ready to blow. Still, maybe stories about people destroying fascist regimes are a good thing regardless of the race, ethnicity, or gender of the protagonists.
Call me old fashioned, I guess.
By the way, early reaction from the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story world premiere over the weekend has been enthusiastically positive.
ROGUE ONE had me from the opening to the very end. Incredible action mixed with a script fans are going to love. Going to make people happy.
— Steven Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) December 11, 2016
The last time I loved a Star Wars movie as much as I loved #RogueOne, it was 1977.
— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) December 11, 2016
I expected it to be funny. I didn't expect to be choked up. Moments of true bravery, and some speeches we need right now. #RogueOne
— Anthony Breznican (@Breznican) December 11, 2016
Holy Sith! @RogueOneMovie is unbelievably wonderful! No lie: it is #EmpireStrikesBack great! An excellent chapter in the @starwars Universe! pic.twitter.com/Lb0vQ06ifh
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) December 11, 2016
My new #StarWars rankings:
1) Empire
2) A New Hope
3) #RogueOne— Umberto Gonzalez (@elmayimbe) December 11, 2016
Rogue One comes out Friday.
[via AV Club]
