Search found 5 matches: Rian Johnson

OK, I've been totally lurking in the corners reading the responses in this thread. As is perfectly clear in my review on this here site of The Last Jedi, I liked it, a lot, despite its very present flaws in places, and am happy to be its Devil's Advocate. A couple things:

kgbelliveau wrote: Indeed the fault does fall with the person who gave him the job in the first place. That same person also had to probably approve the final draft of the script. I wish that person would explain why the saw this as the best product for Star Wars.

That would be Kathleen Kennedy. I heard Rian Johnson speak on the script and approval process in person at a Q&A, and while all of this is clearly second-hand, what I heard and saw directly from Rian is an honest, lifelong fan of Star Wars who had the chance to steer the franchise toward what he believed would be its next logical era, and was given unprecedented opportunity to do so. The question that was constantly asked by the audience - indeed, because it seems to defy belief - is that Rian had complete creative control. This is something he asserts, believe him or not (I kinda do - the film is too refreshing and radical in foundational ways to be drafted by corporate). But ultimately the buck stops with Kennedy, and the go-ahead was given to Rian's draft (the final movie still gives him solo writing credit). Interestingly - because of the way the production and pre-production timeline worked out - the draft was written before Force Awakens was finished. Rian was only provided a script of Force Awakens while planning this second installment, and had to guess what characters would behave like based on this script. This could also have influenced the distinct personality of Last Jedi. Characters were subsequently tweaked nearer to production once Force Awakens was nearing its final stage.

livelove wrote:The space force scene was the first time in my life where majority of the theatre laughed openly at Star Wars because of how bad it was

My audience cheered. And let's be honest. I do not disagree on its computerized artificiality. But thematically - I think it hits something very deep at the new Star Wars being proposed in Last Jedi. I truly believe Luke's words to Rey - that The "Force does not belong to the Jedi. To say that if the Jedi die, the light dies, is vanity." - is probably as important or more so than Kylo's "Let the past die. Kill it" mantra. The unknown little Dickensian orphan who can use the force at the end of the film? Finn's unspoken connection to Kylo at the very beginning of the Force Awakens? There are subtleties, getting stronger, alluding to a more unified Force than we’ve seen in previous installments. It’s almost a call to Jurassic Park’s original “life finds a way” theme. Without Jedi and Sith as we've known them, where does The Force go? There’s a good case to be had that each of the main characters has some level of passive Force power resonate in the film – from Rose’s affinity to animals, to her sister’s brief remote catch during the first bombing raid. This theme begins with this Leia “Superman” move and has its coda in the orphan’s broom catch in the film’s last shot. In the middle, Rey finds out she is gifted despite (in spite) of her lineage, which simply doesn’t matter. This is as shocking as Luke originally finding out his Dad is the series’ Big Bad. And this answer holds much more power for me than if she were a clone of Palpatine or Obi Wan’s great niece twice removed. Where before in Star Wars the Force seemed reserved for an elite caste of Sith and Jedi, this Force appears to be distributing itself more evenly across the Galaxy. This is a bold direction.

kgbelliveau wrote: It took a while to accept what I had just seen, but once I was over it, I felt relieved that she survived and got a second chance to shine in the film ... except that she didn't. I don't really remember any particularly important moment she had during the rest of the film — nothing of real importance or consequence.

Unfortunately, Rian said she was supposed to be very important in the last episode and this had to be scrapped. This kinda makes sense: [spoiler]Han in Force Awakens, Luke in Last Jedi, Leia in Episode IX. I would find it more cynical to kill two twins in one movie[/spoiler] Plus, she acted as a foil, a counter to Holdo, for Poe's character arc, and this seems like a valid reason to not kill her early on in the film. As a matter of fact [spoiler]her shooting Poe[/spoiler] is a huge moment for Poe's character and forces him to reconsider what allegiance means.

90sCoffee wrote:I don't blame Rian Johnson anymore, I blame whoever had the decision making power and for some reason saw his resume and thought he'd be a good fit for directing a space sci-fi adventure film, that's who's at fault.

Indeed the fault does fall with the person who gave him the job in the first place. That same person also had to probably approve the final draft of the script. I wish that person would explain why the saw this as the best product for Star Wars.

I don't blame Rian Johnson anymore, I blame whoever had the decision making power and for some reason saw his resume and thought he'd be a good fit for directing a space sci-fi adventure film, that's who's at fault.

For my lifelong interest in Star Wars and the journeys of the characters I felt like the Last Jedi destroyed my interest in the future of the series. It was such a slow burning film that did very little to create threads for the final adventure. In fact it closed all the doors that had previously been opened with the Force Awakens.

The were vastly different films in many regards but the progression of the Story done in Last Jedi was much worse. Of course Force Awakens draws comparisons to A New Hope in the way it needed to set up a new set of core characters. The Last Jedi almost felt like it needed to slap Force Awakens in the face and be done with all the potential engaging story lines that it brought to the table.

Rian Johnson tore about the franchise just to be handed the ropes to his own original series that I most certainly no longer have interest in. Rian Johnson had no love for what Star Wars was all about and took a giant deuce on a series that had already been well accepted with audiences.

He disregarded the one story line with Rey and her parents that actually meant something. He had ample time to create a better way to handle Leia moving forward yet chose to for some reason leave that open ended. Does Luke even have a reason to be shown as a Force ghost? He does not mean all that much to Rey or Ren at this point. Finn was reduced to a horrible romantic sub plot that absolutely no one cared about. Poe is the most interesting character left but a final adventure surely cannot sustain itself based on his charisma a lone. Leia surely wont be recast out of respect for Carrie Fisher and that is rightfully deserved. So I ask with the utmost curiousity, what the hell is left for Episode 9 to even explore?

There are BOUND to be a lot of spoilers in the below

A lot of interesting viewpoints there, some I agree with, some I don't. I think *very* generally, I find that a lot of the problems people have with TLJ come from the film failing to meet their own personal expectations of what a star wars movie should be while forgetting that the original trilogy films are also full of flaws if inspected with similar critical mindsets. The Star Wars saga is a melodramatic space opera meant to be accessible to a broad spectrum of ages, and that means the inclusion of characters and gags that are tonally aimed at a younger audience. I can accept that, but my biggest problem with TLJ is the timing of a lot of the jokes. For example the one where Luke asks Rey where she is from, she says nowhere, he says everybody is from somewhere, she says Jakku, and he deadpans along the lines of 'ok that really is nowhere'. I actually think its a funny gag, but completely out of place during an important scene where Luke is attempting to figure out the young girl who has found him and is attempting to seek his help. It didn't need any comic relief at that moment and it's not the only time this happens in TLJ. Genuine question, are today's kids so ADHD that they need to be entertained every few mins lest they lose interest during a dialogue heavy scene?

Another choice that bothered me was turning Hux into a pantomime villain and the victim of so many slapstick punchlines. I actually disliked the Hux character in TFA to start with to be honest. I thought Gleeson's performance was already too cheesy and over the top and nowhere near the 'young Moff Tarkin' I anticipated his character to be. In TLJ it looks like Rian Johnson just doubled down and decided he was going to be comic relief throughout. Snoke at one stage tries to justify why a bumbling idiot has such a position of power, but it's not the strongest reasoning. Panto villain Hux is not a decision I would have taken, but I have now come to terms with it. Most franchises of this nature have comic relief characters on both sides of the good vs evil divide. In star wars, we've always had the droids and god forbid the likes of jar jar binks, but we've never had an evil comic relief character so this feels 'off' to us, but I can look at it objectively and believe that in 30 years time, there will be adults our age who love Star Wars discussing how much they always enjoyed the humour of the General Hux character having grown up with it.

I'm not going to dissect every point you made, as I think you just wanted to vent your viewpoints rather than get into a debate, but I will try and answer some of the questions you concluded with as I think there are some good ones there.

Did they really cram the ENTIRE Resistance onto the Millennium Falcon?
Honestly, I got the impression their numbers had been reduced to so few that yes they could all fit on the falcon. Look at the numbers standing around in the bunker just before they follow the crystal critters. They look like there were less than 30 in total. Remember that most of the transport ships were shot down before they reached Crait and more died defending the bunker.

Where are the Knights of Ren?
Good question. Definitely a notable omission to not even mention them. I can only assume they had too much to try and cover in TLJ that they didn't want to try juggle another ball. I hope that JJ gives them some sort of notable coverage in Ep IX seeing as he's the one who hinted at them so strongly in the first place.

What killed Luke?
I'm definitely not an authority on this, but my take was the physical effort it took to Astral Project himself across the galaxy and buy the time the Rebels needed to escape, proved to be too much for his regular lifeforce and so he disappeared into the force voluntarily having made peace with himself and his place in the universe. It's an absolute that he will turn up in Ep IX haunting Ben as he's suggested as much himself in their face off.

How much time passed between this film and Force Awakens? Did Rey arrive at Luke's place at the start of this film, or the end of last one?
Not much if any. At the end of TFA Rey set off to find Luke immediately after R2 conveniently awoke with the missing part of the map and she found him soon after (days? I dunno how long space travel takes) and that's where TLJ also starts. Finn is also seen emerging from his coma in the bacta suit referencing the loss of consciousness he suffered helping Rey fight Kylo Ren. And Ben himself starts TLJ with his face still healing from the lightsabre fight with Rey and we see him having surgery on it soon after.

Who the fuck is Maz Kanata, and why should we care?
Never warmed to her myself either. I get the feeling she was supposed to be a sort of modern trilogy Yoda substitute, but she didn't really work for me in any capacity. I was glad she was reduced to a blurry cameo this time out so maybe others felt similar and she may no longer be an important character to the franchise?

How will Leia die, and why did they have to kill everything we ever loved!?
I expected they would find a way to retrospectively add a death scene in TLJ knowing they couldn't shoot anything better for Ep IX. I have no idea how they can handle it effectively from here. Do they reuse cut footage to somehow write her out of the story? Do they marginalize her character by sending her back to Poochie's home planet at the start of the next one? It could be argued that substituting her into Holdo's sacrifice would have been a fitting end for her character, but maybe it was technically too difficult?

Do Monkey/Horse/Dogs make orphans into jedis?
The point I took here was that there was a force sensitive kid out there growing up dreaming of joining the Resistance, and that he and others like him around the galaxy would be the future of the Rebel forces.

Why name anyone DJ? And what happened to the ACTUAL codebreaker?
That was a sloppy alright. Watching the movie, I was never that clear on whether Del Toro was the code breaker they were looking for or not. It turns out he wasn't and the actual codebreaker remained rolling dice at the tables. However the whole thing makes Maz Kanata's supposedly sage advice seem pointless. She said there was only one person who could hack the first order security which is why they had to go to Canto Bight in the first place. Turns out there were two capable of the hack in the same complex on the same night which is a bit weak.

I will finish off by challenging one statement you made where you said 'The filmmakers played it safe'. In a movie, where they kill snoke, abandon the mystery of Rey's parentage and kill off Luke f***ing Skywalker, I don't think the filmmakers can be accused of playing things too safe!