The Last Jedi How do folks feel about Rian Johnson as a Star Wars storyteller?

[Gothamsknight]

He did an absolutely brilliant job with The Last Jedi, so im super excited for his upcoming trilogy. He made easily the most challenging star wars film since the empire strikes back. He also shocked us more than any other star wars film has since empire as well. The idea of rey being the light, kylo being the dark, and luke being the balance in all of it, along with the themes/message of the film of failure being the best teacher has left me thinking about this film daily since its release in a way That i think even surprised myself. So far, this sequel trilogy has been everything i wanted the prequels to be. i absolutely loved force awakens, loved last jedi, and i even loved Rogue one. Bring on Solo and Episode IX!

 

[Reaver027]

Honestly i don't want to see anything else he will ever make. And i don't want him to create another Star Wars story.
He created the only movie i hate. I dislike other movies but never hated one before. Normally i just just shrug and and don't care about movies i dislike. But this is Star Wars. This is my favorite franchise since i was 6 years old.
For all their flaws the prequels were a fun ride. This was a chore. A visually stunning chore.

 

[Agent Orange]

There's nothing fun or redeeming about the prequel trilogy save for Ewan McGregor's contributions. The most frustrating part of the Disney era of Star Wars? The revisionist takes that I keep reading about those pieces of garbage.

 

[TheVileOne]

There's nothing fun or redeeming about the prequel trilogy save for Ewan McGregor's contributions. The most frustrating part of the Disney era of Star Wars? The revisionist takes that I keep reading about those pieces of garbage.

Yeah. It's weird. Suddenly a lot of think piece people love the prequels now.

 

[Mjölnir]

There's nothing fun or redeeming about the prequel trilogy save for Ewan McGregor's contributions. The most frustrating part of the Disney era of Star Wars? The revisionist takes that I keep reading about those pieces of garbage.

I certainly don't praise the prequels by any means, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that nothing in there is good except for McGregor. For example, I think McDiarmid did a good job, if we discount that horrible scene in RotS.

 

[Aximili86]

Best non-Lucas contributor to the series along with Kasdan & Kershner.

Bring on the trilogy.

 

[Grootster]

A lot of people have complained that the Canto Bight scene has a rather juvenile animal cruelty message. I agree that this is not the place for such a childish and basic message, but I'd like to point out just how nonsensical this whole sequence is aside from that.

1. They make no attempt whatsoever to free the slave boy.

2. Freeing one animal (and causing property damage out of spite) is worth failing your mission and dooming the Resistance?

3. There's no indication that all of the people (or even most of them) in the casino are responsible for selling weapons and ruining Rose's home. The whole "these people got rich selling weapons" thing is the pure definition of generalizing.

4. I doubt everyone in the casino was a rich person, there weren't any slaves or paid servants/butlers in the building at all? They could have injured perfectly innocent people.

4. There's nothing inherently evil about what's going on in the casino, even if they all are weapons dealers.

5. Guess who's going to be cleaning up the mess Finn and Rose made? It's not going to be the rich people, it's going to be the slaves.

6. The only person we see abusing the slave boy isn't a rich person, it appears to be a hired hand. No revenge is taken against the one person seen directly doing something evil.

I could also go into the fact that Disney, Lucasfilm, and probably Rian Johnson himself are insanely rich, but that's been mentioned before.

This is so nonsensical and lazy that it boggles my mind thinking how it was even approved for release in a major motion picture, much less a Star Wars movie that everyone will see. I'd be embarrassed to put a situation like this in a movie. It's obvious that Rian Johnson wanted a "heck yeah, fight the power" image in his movie against "evil rich people", but put zero thought into it beyond that. There are plenty of ways to do this basic thing. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had a completely justified "fight the power" scene. The Last Jedi handles it in the most juvenile and lazy way possible.

With this kind of thing in the movie I really can't understand why so many people think Rian Johnson is a good storyteller.

 

[Gladius Nova]

A lot of people have complained that the Canto Bight scene has a rather juvenile animal cruelty message. I agree that this is not the place for such a childish and basic message, but I'd like to point out just how nonsensical this whole sequence is aside from that.

1. They make no attempt whatsoever to free the slave boy.

2. Freeing one animal (and causing property damage out of spite) is worth failing your mission and dooming the Resistance?

3. There's no indication that all of the people (or even most of them) in the casino are responsible for selling weapons and ruining Rose's home. The whole "these people got rich selling weapons" thing is the pure definition of generalizing.

4. I doubt everyone in the casino was a rich person, there weren't any slaves or paid servants/butlers in the building at all? They could have injured perfectly innocent people.

4. There's nothing inherently evil about what's going on in the casino, even if they all are weapons dealers.

5. Guess who's going to be cleaning up the mess Finn and Rose made? It's not going to be the rich people, it's going to be the slaves.

6. The only person we see abusing the slave boy isn't a rich person, it appears to be a hired hand. No revenge is taken against the one person seen directly doing something evil.

I could also go into the fact that Disney, Lucasfilm, and probably Rian Johnson himself are insanely rich, but that's been mentioned before.

This is so nonsensical and lazy that it boggles my mind thinking how it was even approved for release in a major motion picture, much less a Star Wars movie that everyone will see. I'd be embarrassed to put a situation like this in a movie. It's obvious that Rian Johnson wanted a "heck yeah, fight the power" image in his movie against "evil rich people", but put zero thought into it beyond that. There are plenty of ways to do this basic thing. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had a completely justified "fight the power" scene. The Last Jedi handles it in the most juvenile and lazy way possible.

With this kind of thing in the movie I really can't understand why so many people think Rian Johnson is a good storyteller.

I hated that entire casino scene. It just threw everything off for me. But it could've been an excellent way to throw in a Lando cameo.

 

[Iceman]

I liked the little guy trying to slot coins into BB-8. Otherwise the whole scene was one long bust.

 

[Grootster]

I hated that entire casino scene. It just threw everything off for me. But it could've been an excellent way to throw in a Lando cameo.

I agree. I thought it would have been interesting to have Lando be the master codebreaker. It would be funny because the scene still could have played out the same way with Finn and Rose getting captured (they would have no idea who he is). Seeing Lando sitting there would just be a fun Easter Egg for people who recognize him.

 

[Grievous]

I think Rian could potentially tell a good Star Wars story from start to finish, however him just adding to someone else's work would not be something I would want. I've warmed up to TLJ a lot since I saw it last year, but I still feel like he ignored a lot of what TFA built up and went off in his own direction.

I loved the prequels for the most part, I sometimes feel a lot of the hate is unjustified, and people just think it's cool to hate on them.

Also I agree with the comments about Canto Bight, felt too much like Earth, didn't have any impact on the outcome of the story unless the idea of the Rebels buying weapons too will have an impact on the last movie. I have a feeling Finn will mention this to someone, or it will be picked back up in the next film. But ultimately the Canto Bight sequence felt like a political statement that animal cruelty and rich people are bad, and should have not even been in the movie, didn't go well with the pace either. There was also no need to bring Phasma back just to give her nothing significant to do yet again, her character deserved better.

Also my own preference but I hope JJ brings back the mask and outfit for Kylo from TFA, I liked that look better than the no mask and cape we got in TLJ.

 

[Gladius Nova]

I think Rian could potentially tell a good Star Wars story from start to finish, however him just adding to someone else's work would not be something I would want. I've warmed up to TLJ a lot since I saw it last year, but I still feel like he ignored a lot of what TFA built up and went off in his own direction.

I loved the prequels for the most part, I sometimes feel a lot of the hate is unjustified, and people just think it's cool to hate on them.

Also I agree with the comments about Canto Bight, felt too much like Earth, didn't have any impact on the outcome of the story unless the idea of the Rebels buying weapons too will have an impact on the last movie. I have a feeling Finn will mention this to someone, or it will be picked back up in the next film. But ultimately the Canto Bight sequence felt like a political statement that animal cruelty and rich people are bad, and should have not even been in the movie, didn't go well with the pace either. There was also no need to bring Phasma back just to give her nothing significant to do yet again, her character deserved better.

Also my own preference but I hope JJ brings back the mask and outfit for Kylo from TFA, I liked that look better than the no mask and cape we got in TLJ.

What would be the point of him wearing the mask again? Everyone knows who he is now and the mask doesn't have any type of life support systems like Darth Vader.

 

[Mjölnir]

What would be the point of him wearing the mask again? Everyone knows who he is now and the mask doesn't have any type of life support systems like Darth Vader.

Everyone who knew who Ben Solo was knew that he was Kylo Ren so hiding wasn't the point. The point was him idolizing Darth Vader, which was an interesting aspect to him. TLJ just didn't delve into that, nor how strongly the light was calling to him, so he just became a much flatter character in the sequel.

What speaks against getting him to use the helmet again is how he reacted to Snoke chastising him for using it, but it felt weird that Snoke would do that in the first place since he certainly encouraged his desires to be like Darth Vader before. One of the many cases where it was noticeable that different people make up the scripts for each film, without any overarching metascript to adhere to.

 

[Brother Jack]

Also my own preference but I hope JJ brings back the mask and outfit for Kylo from TFA, I liked that look better than the no mask and cape we got in TLJ.

Kylo destroying the mask was symbolic of him shedding his fixation on Vader and becoming his own man. That's his arc in TLJ, so it would be narratively regressive to have him go back to it in IX. What would work is if they had him an Emperor-like hooded robe.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Kylo destroying the mask was symbolic of him shedding his fixation on Vader and becoming his own man. That's his arc in TLJ, so it would be narratively regressive to have him go back to it in IX. What would work is if they had him an Emperor-like hooded robe.

Thatd be so damn epic. and it would give him that "supreme leader" type look.

 

[Adhesive Boy]

He still acts like a whiny, angry child so he's not really cut out for the emperor look. Or the emperor role at all for that matter.

If he at least had managed to submerge himself fully in the dark side by killing his master, becoming more powerful in the process, I might be able to take him seriously. But he remains the guy that Rey overpowered in the force the same minute she realized she was force sensitive.

 

[Frodo]

I'm of two minds on Kylo Ren in general. I like the idea of a conflicted villain who's trying to be something he really isn't ,in concept.

But in execution, for me at least, the whiny child-like behavior undermines the character as not only as someone conflicted, but as a threat in general.

In that sense , its hard for me to take the character seriously as conflicted character nor as an actual threat.

I also don't think having Hux as a clown really helps, because they both come off looking like fools and not formitable foes who could really win in the end.

Yes, I know others feel differently, but that's how i've responded to the execution of the characters over the two films.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

I'll keep it simple

Rian Johnson sucks and I seriously hope Disney reconsiders keeping him around to make a new trilogy

 

[Schlosser85]

I don't think he's right for Star Wars at all.