Yes, a Federal Judge did indeed find a way to call Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi and Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker “mediocre” and “schlocky” in a recent ruling involving ConAgra Foods and Wesson Oil.

I’ve known about this for days, but I didn’t even think to make an article about it, but since more people are covering it, what the heck!

Here’s what happened

A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge, Kenneth K. Lee, when ruling that the new owner of Wesson Oil could resume using a label that says ‘100% Natural” whenever he wished.

The case seems to be about Wesson Oil wanting to use the phrase on a label and ConAgra saying they couldn’t, but they actually had no grounds to stop them from doing so.

Here’s what the judge said in the ruling that is causing such a stir:

“Simply put, Richardson — the new owner of Wesson Oil — can resume using the ‘100% Natural’ label at any time it wishes, thereby depriving the class of any value theoretically afforded by the injunction. ConAgra thus essentially agreed not to do something over which it lacks the power to do.”

Then he continued:

“That is like George Lucas promising no more mediocre and schlocky Star Wars sequels shortly after selling the franchise to Disney. Such a promise would be illusory.”

Now you may be saying, “But that could mean any of the Star Wars movies.” But this judge was thorough and put a foot note in the ruling specifying exactly which films he was referring to.

The foot note reads: “As evident by Disney’s production of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.”

I heard about it initially from Twitter on June 1st:

#appellatetwitter Also, the Ninth Circuit makes it official, holding that, as a matter of law, Disney’s THE LAST JEDI was “mediocre and schlocky.” https://t.co/G0RE56hPXP pic.twitter.com/Cxkstoy6Ji

— tedfrank 💉 (@tedfrank) June 1, 2021

Disney’s Star Wars problem

Disney has had a Star Wars problem ever since Episode XIII: The Last Jedi came out. Fans were not happy about what they chose to do to Luke Skywalker and Finn.

Finn was set up to be a co-lead and major character, but he was sidelined on a fetch quest with Rose Tico. Of course that made fans not care for Rose Tico.

The new direction caused a large rift in the fandom. It also didn’t help that the media, certain fans, and even director Rian Johnson, were out there calling fans who didn’t like the film names.  Even those who harassed no one, but simply didn’t like the movie.

By the time Disney decided to bring back J.J. Abrams and reverse choices made in The Last Jedi for The Rise of Skywalker, they had already alienated a lot of fans.

Then they alienated the fans they had left that had liked The Last Jedi.

The media and reviewers that had gone out of their way to promote The Last Jedi and attack fans, turned on Disney and Lucasfilm when they changed the direction of the one film they liked.

It’s been a mess since the direction they took with The Last Jedi.

Now both films are now a footnote, as an example of what not to do, in the legal ruling of a large court case.

Yes Disney, it’s gotten that bad.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!

Source: Newsweek, @tedfrank on Twitter