Mark Hamill says he regrets bad-mouthing 'The Last Jedi' in public

• Mark Hamill says he regrets voicing doubts about "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" in previous interviews.
• In earlier comments, he said he disapproved of the movie's direction for his character, Luke Skywalker.
• The movie's haters pointed to those interviews to show that Hamill himself disapproved of the film.
• Most people love it anyway.

Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" movie, took to Twitter on Tuesday to express regret for trash-talking "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" in public interviews.

It's a thumb in the eye of the few "Star Wars""fans" who have seized on his previous comments to back their negative opinions of the movie.

"I regret voicing my doubts & insecurities in public,"Hamill wrote. "Creative differences are a common element of any project but usually remain private. All I wanted was to make good movie. I got more than that — [director Rian Johnson] made an all-time GREAT one!"

In interviews leading up to the movie's release earlier this month, Hamill distanced himself from Johnson's vision for Luke Skywalker.

"I at one point had to say to Rian, 'I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character,'"Hamill told Vanity Fair. "'Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize your vision.'"

He also told The New York Daily News that he personally doesn't agree with Luke's "it's time for the Jedi to end" philosophy, as stated in the movie's trailers.

"I’m the host body to which this character has been assigned,"Hamill said. "I don’t care what happened to this guy. Jedis do not give up. It’s just inherent in them."

In "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Skywalker appears only briefly, at the end of the movie. He plays a much larger role in "The Last Jedi," but some fans disapprove of the character's direction.

Detractors of "The Last Jedi" have pointed to Hamill's past comments to argue that he tacitly disapproved of the movie. 

But Hamill — grudgingly — came around to Johnson's vision. He conceded that the series needed to move forward to a new generation of characters.

"It's not my story anymore. It's somebody else's story, and Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective,"Hamill said at a press event. "He's not my Luke Skywalker. But I had to do what Rian wanted me to do because it serves the story well. Listen, I still haven't accepted it completely, but it's only a movie."

Hamill — whose acting talent has long been considered a weak point in the "Star Wars" movies — is getting high marks for his performance in "The Last Jedi."

"Hamill, who once created one of cinema’s most iconic characters but would never be considered by anyone to be a great actor, gives the single best acting performance of his career,"Chris Nashawaty wrote in his review of the movie for Entertainment Weekly.

"The Last Jedi" remains largely beloved, despite the argument over the portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the film. Detractors of the movie apparently bombed the movie's Rotten Tomatoes audience score online. But Cinemascore, an independent firm tracking audience sentiment, gave it an "A," which is the same score "The Force Awakens" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" received." The film also has an 89% rating from ComScore and Screen Engine, which is roughly the same as the other two recent "Star Wars" movies.

Audiences still seem to want to see the movie in theaters, too. The movie has made nearly $800 million so far and is on its way to being the highest-grossing movie of 2017.

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