Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
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Lithose
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‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Director Rian Johnson Says Catering to Fans ‘Is a Mistake’
Just ahead of the opening of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” this weekend, “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson appeared on the “Swings & Mrs” podcast with Jennifer and Cody Decker and told them that catering to fandoms would be a mistake.“I think approaching any creative process with that...www.yahoo.com
Trust this dude he knows how to make a good movie.
He's not totally wrong, catering to the fans is a mistake. What you need to cater to is the mythos of the film (Which is partly how the fans view them film). It seems like these two things would be the same, but they aren't. Each individual fan might view individual concepts differently and have different hopes for how things turn out--trying to please them all will be a mess. But most fans can agree on the generality of concepts in the mythos, and all you have to do is respect that. And Rian Johnson literally did the opposite of that. He went out of his way to rip apart those general concepts for 'shock factor' alone (So not even destroying them in an interesting way, just shitting on them because he knew it would shock people. Luke tossing the lightsaber is a metaphor for the whole movie. The absolute cheapest, most superficial way to do the unexpected--nothing mattered except for it being the opposite of how things should be.).
but that’s not really going to satisfy me…I want to be shocked, I want to be surprised, I want to be thrown off-guard, I want to have things recontextualized, I want to be challenged as a fan when I sit down in the theater. I think what you want from a movie guides, inevitably, how you go about making them,” he added.
Again, the above isn't wrong. He just didn't care enough about the IP to pull it off, A twist or a "recontextualization" only works if you delicately and carefully guide the fans through it so it makes sense with what happened before. Its not simply doing the opposite because "hurr hurr what a twist!", its about slowly bending the material to lead fans to a new expectation. If you don't carefully lead the audience to your shocking outcome in a way where each step feels very organic and before you know it, your view is changed--then you failed. A good twist should be like a good joke, the answer should be obvious when you think about it with your new context (IE all the things you've learned over the course of the film), but at the same time very difficult to figure out given the old way of thinking. Johnson didn't do that; he didn't really explain why things were so weird and different, he just said "that's how it is".
If you want a great example of a property that's been able to do this...Look at Cobra Kai. It totally recontextualized the Karate Kid and did a 180 on most of the things we knew. Fans didn't reject it because it was very apparent that they didn't simply say "durr this is how things are now, this character is now a douche". No. The writers took their time to add a new dimension to the story without disturbing what was there, and it was fucking great. The story GREW into its new form, without needing to alter the roots. That's the difference.
The idea that the only thing important is the shock factor is dumb, its like saying icing is the most important part of the cake so you make a cake of all icing. Shock for surprises sake sucks. He could have had Rey shit in a box and rolled credits and it would have been fucking shocking, but that doesn't make a good film. Cohesive story makes a good film (Which is also why its infuriating that he constantly compares his bullshit to Empire. Again he's not wrong in the technical sense, if his film had been the second in a trilogy and we knew NOTHING about SW, it would have been a lot better...But what he's missing is his film was NOT the second movie in a series. It was the 10th or 11th...Meaning you're building on much firmer roots, and a broader base and if you don't account for that, your movie is going to feel exactly like TLJ did--as if it was made by someone who just didn't give a shit about the story before that point, except to know enough to add some "shocking twists".)
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Arbitrary
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Merrith
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I wouldn't even say they did a 180 on it, because a lot of the "180" feel is stuff that was clearly there in the original. Daniel was kind of a whiny bitch even then, Johnny DID congratulate him and hand him the trophy when it was over. I think they did a great job with the societal changes from the 80's to now to show how Johnny's type of thinking could come off as solid and self-sufficient nowadays rather than powderpuff participation trophies everywhere.
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Lanx
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Synj
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Wakandan with porn star mouth
Someone took a picture of me while I was mid sentence and it came out looking like this. They posted it on social and I was legit ashamed. Considered reporting it.
Also: I hate people.
Also: Star Wars.
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Synj
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Big Phoenix
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Its here boys, its finally here. Get the dump trucks ready to load up on the salt.
I havent watched any of it but from all my reading it sounds like it would be a forgettable nothing if it wasnt for the SW setting, especially baby yoda.
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I haven't really dug in completely on any reviews yet, but so far I'm seeing two consistent takeaways...
This works hard to pull off a 180 from TLJ, and....is somehow just as bad, or worse. Of course some of these same people were effusive in their praise of TLJ, so, grains of salt, etc.
After finishing TFA, they had no more fucking clue where this thing was going than the audience did.
This works hard to pull off a 180 from TLJ, and....is somehow just as bad, or worse. Of course some of these same people were effusive in their praise of TLJ, so, grains of salt, etc.
After finishing TFA, they had no more fucking clue where this thing was going than the audience did.
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Gamma Rays
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The other morning I got to see a story on a TV show where one of their reporters was doing one of those interview circuit days with the RoS cast. Soppy shill rubbish
With Daisy R it was about how strong a female character she is playing. Then Jo Boyega goes into a thing about how good it is to have diversity and representation in Star wars.
It was all right off the K Kennedy playlist. Many eyerolls from Gamma watching it all.
The best bit though was when Richard E Grant talks about the fact that he's playing some new bad guy character ( first order leader or something ) "Well when you have an accent like mine you're going to be playing an evil character, I'm okay with that."
I got to thinking that perhaps he was fully aware of what he was doing, saying this as a sly way to point out the hypocrisy of it all.
With Daisy R it was about how strong a female character she is playing. Then Jo Boyega goes into a thing about how good it is to have diversity and representation in Star wars.
It was all right off the K Kennedy playlist. Many eyerolls from Gamma watching it all.
The best bit though was when Richard E Grant talks about the fact that he's playing some new bad guy character ( first order leader or something ) "Well when you have an accent like mine you're going to be playing an evil character, I'm okay with that."
I got to thinking that perhaps he was fully aware of what he was doing, saying this as a sly way to point out the hypocrisy of it all.
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Chris
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The only spoiler that seems to be untrue is the Millenium Falcon being destroyed with the remaining original cast in it. Could have been cut/reshot though as the rumour said people were walking out of test screenings.
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