ST Rian Johnson (Director Of TLJ) Discussion Thread

How did he convince TPTB to spend so much money on alien seal-cow things that Luke Skywalker would then milk?

The man must have a golden tongue. Can't tell in the gif.

 

Just saw Knives Out. Really good film. The man can direct, no doubt. He needed a lot more supervision on his TLJ writing, or another writer altogether, IMHO.

 

I’m still a fan of his. Looper and Brick are both great movies, but yeah, giving him as much autonomy as they did with TLJ was a mistake. It’s interesting how his production had the least amount of controversy from Lucasfilm (no one was fired, no huge chunk was re-shot), yet the end result had the most controversy among fans.

 

Except he wrote knives out too... The issue came with having two director's with different visions working on the ST.

 

No, the issue is he can’t write Star Wars, and there should be creative oversight over writing like the ST in any case, just like you alluded to.

 

There's a difference between "can't write Star Wars" and "wrote a Star War that I didn't like."

 

I am just glad he tried to take it in a new direction instead of having nostalgia fest 2 electric Boogaloo

 

What was wrong in the last thread?

Seemed quite reasonable to me.

 

The only other work of his that I've seen is Looper, and I enjoyed that. I have no quarrel with exploring new ideas, I just don't think he did a very good job of it with TLJ. And he does his fair share of pandering in TLJ, which tends to get glossed over and not discussed much. The whole exercise just felt smug and condescending to me. But that's just me. YMMV.

 

yup he showed what Star Wars movies can be. Let's hope they can achieve that again

 

His Snoke theory sucked.

 

Knives out perfectly explain why TLJ didn't work for me. It's a brilliant movie, characterized by a rather clever and complicated plot and a heavy use of humor. Most importantly, it's his own thing. It's not a sequel.

This features are present in TLJ as well and this is why it didn't work for me. For me SW is best when it is based on simple ideas. TLJ was too complicated, it was plot driven rather than character driven and in general it failed in setting the proper mood in me, due in part to what I consider to be misplaced humor, in part because it was too fast and too dense.

I do think he will have a great career. Not only he made Knives Out, but he also directed one of the best Breaking Bad episodes. With the exception of TLJ I generally like what he does.

 

I've never understood the widespread disdain for this scene. Luke grew up on a farm. He drank blue milk with dinner. There were banthas everywhere. And when you're on an island in the middle of the ocean, you can't drink ocean water.

 

If sustenance is the point there were other ways of doing it than the way chosen. The shot structure, the way the camera leers Bay-style - you can almost hear a 'hur, hur, boooobs'. It was crass.

 

It’s not just me. It was divisive with fans. You would want a writer that could write Star Wars that wasn’t divisive. They managed it with TFA.

 

I never understand these claims of "new direction" and "original" for The Last Jedi. It is just as much a pastiche of TESB as The Force Awakens is to ANH.

The Last Jedi copycat list from The Empire Strikes Back can be ticked off just as the previous instalment could.

1. Protagonist and Wise Old Mentor in isolated environment undergo some form of training. Check
2. Protagonist doesn't listen to Wise Old Mentor and leaves in a hurry. Check
3. Goodies have to evacuate their hidden base, pursued through space by the baddies. Check
4. Goodies end up at cosmopolitan type city environment and meet with duplicitous ally who betrays them? Check
5. White environment with walkers and speeder fight? Check
6. Antagonist tries to get protagonist to join them. Check

Other elements, such as the throne room scene, were a rip-off of ROTJ

The movie is no less derivative than the others, it just looks a bit nicer.

 

Can’t thank Rian Johnson enough for what he delivered with TLJ. Easily my favorite of the ST. The character arcs and story is very compelling, and it would have been a perfect movie IMO, if it wasn’t for some of the failed humor. Loved what he did with Luke, Kylo, Rey, and Poe as character. I think the Canto Byte sequence gets too much crap. Is it great? No. But there’s usually always at least one sequence in SW films that’s kinda ehhh filer. TLJ gave this trilogy the opportunity to tell its own story, and not just be a rip of the OT. Rian Johnson delivers the most visually stunning Star Wars film also by far. This is a really clean film, and it shows. It’s the only Disney SW film that didn’t have issues in production.

 

Remember when Rian basically broke up Han and Leia and turned him back into a smuggler and then had his son brutally murder him?

 

I’ve seen the disdain for this scene explained a million times. I’ll try it again. It’s not a straight forward milking scene like this is a space farm. The beast has human-like breasts and it’s played to gross Rey out. Luke fills his little bottle thing and takes a swig of milk like it’s a pint of ale, and it dribbles down his beard like he’s a slob alcoholic with his “ale.” The sea cow and Rey also share a look like they’re having a meeting of the minds on how bizarre the situation is (why would it be again?). Basically, it feels like a Spaceballs moment to some, or to me it always felt like an Adult Swim sketch.

I don’t understand why people say it’s just a milking scene because Luke grew up on a farm, as though it obviously isn’t playing for gross out comedy. Straight forward milking to survive would be in the vein of ANH.

 

That doesn't actually change the point of my post.
There's a difference between "can't write Star Wars" and "wrote a Star War that a lot of people didn't like."
The exact same purpose is still served.

 

Not sure I agree. My opinion is that if you can’t write Star Wars that is not divisive, then you can’t write Star Wars.

 

30% boring space chase, 30% boring casino side plot?

 

Of course he's trying to gross her out! He doesn't want her there! She's been following him around on his daily activities, and he wants her to leave him alone. The weirdness of the scene is right out of the George Lucas playbook. See the poop and fart jokes in TPM, the nonstop physical & gross humor in Radioland Murders, the Kafka and Freud episodes of Young Indiana Jones, David Bowie's character in Labyrinth, or pretty much anything from Howard the Duck. And though this isn't strictly Lucas, let's throw in the Holiday Special for good measure.

 

Then you're missing the point. Hint: The operative word is "can't."