First uploaded to Pirate Bay, the radical male-orientated cut reduces the lengthy 155 minute movie to a brisk and breezy 46 minutes.
Whoever is responsible (wisely) decided to remain anonymous but titled his work: “The Last Jedi: De-Feminized Fanedit… Basically The Last Jedi minus Girlz Powah and other silly stuff.”
The edit has started a social media storm but it’s hard not to agree with some of his changes.
After all, even some of the most hardcore devoted Star Wars fans had major issues with many Episode 8 plot points.
For example, Poe, whose extended interminable mission to Canto Bight was not a crowd-pleaser with hardcore fans, is killed off.
Some might also take pleasure is seeing Chewbacca finally eat that porg he was roasting over the fire, while the equally unpopular scene of Luke milking an alien is something many could do without ever seeing again.
However this particular cut is so shocking and distasteful because it simply takes out any major female-driven plot lines, often removing female characters altogether.
Rey’s role is butchered and she is shown as helpless and weak in the climactic battle against Snoke’s Praetorians. It also rewrites the scenes between Leia and Poe so that the man is not “scolded or questioned” by the woman.
The heroic Vice-Admiral Holdo is gone, the equally heroic Rose is virtually invisible and referred to as “Asian chick” and her sister (who was so heroic she died igniting a barrage of bombs) also disappears completely.
The anonymous happy-snipper lists brief descriptions of the changes he made as follows:
“Cut out most shots showing female fighters/pilots and female officers commanding people around/having ideas. NO HALDO (Holdo)! She simply doesn’t exist. Her whole subplot doesn’t exist. The Kamikaze is carried out by Poe. Poe dies.
“Leia never scolds, questions nor demotes Poe. He is a respected and very skilled high-ranking member of the resistance.”
“When there’s a scene where a woman is cut in making some important statement that can be substituted by another statement by a guy, then she gets cut out. Works pretty well actually.
“Wookie eats the Porg, or at least isn’t interrupted in trying to do so. No green milk.”
The unknown poster is being linked to the MRM (Men’s Rights Movement) in the US after LA film commentator Priscilla Page posted a message about the movie: “MRAs make 46-minute edit of The Last Jedi that edits out all the women” followed by lines and lines of laughter.
The Star Wars makers themselves wasted no time before joining in with the fun, lead by Rian Johnson who wrote: “Priscilla hits all the major points here but I’ll just add..” followed by more lines of laughter.
Mark Hamill jumped in with: “Agreed. But let me add…” followed by lines of emojis rolling around with laughter.
John Bodega brought it all home by tweeting: “Great points. Hope it’s okay to make a final point…” followed by lines of emojis crying with laughter.
The Urban Diction describes Men’s Rights Activists as: “Civil society associations concerned with combating accepted discrimination against men in contemporary western society, especially in the areas of military service, family law, popular culture and other areas when double standards are applied. Often targets of hate speech by radical feminists.”
One thing is clear, after two years of hype and then a highly contentious release, The Last Jedi continues to divide fans and social media and hit headlines.
Love it or loathe it, Rian Johnson’s movie has opened up discussions around Star wars like never before.