How much did movie fans hate Star Wars: The Last Jedi?
Perhaps not as fiercely as social media might suggest, according to a US academic study, which found half the negative tweets about the 2017 movie came from bots, trolls or political activists, some of whom may be Russian.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which focused on ageing Jedi Luke Skywalker's reluctance to be drawn back into the battle against the dark side in the sci-fi saga, prompted criticism online after its December 2017 release.
Many lashed out at key roles given to women and actors of colour in the movie, while others were dismayed by the apparent death of Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill.
The Disney movie took $US1.3 billion ($A1.8 billion) at the global box office, compared with $US2 billion for 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
A study by University of Southern California research fellow Morten Bay, released on Monday, analysed the language, Twitter handles and IP addresses of more than 1200 tweets sent to Last Jedi director Rian Johnson's Twitter handle in the seven months after the film's release.
"Overall, 50.9 per cent of those tweeting negatively was likely politically motivated or not even human," Bay says in the paper.
He says they appeared to be using the debate around The Last Jedi "to propagate political messages supporting extreme right-wing causes and the discrimination of gender, race or sexuality".
"A number of these users appear to be Russian trolls," Bay says.
Disney did not respond to a request for comment on the research but Johnson said on Twitter the overall findings were "consistent with my experience online".
Bay says the likely objective is to increase "media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society".
A US Senate panel has been examining reported Russian efforts to influence US political public opinion before and after the 2016 election of President Donald Trump.
