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You’re Rian Johnson... now what?


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Guest El Chalupacabra

Yeah I wouldn't want that either. Rian Johnson was supposedly given license to do a non-connected trilogy. Supposedly was going to be settings and characters never seen before. That kind of violates that right off the bat. Plus, I am still letting TLJ sink in. Right now, I am not completely happy with it, and have some issues with it that will either become worse to me, or maybe better. Time will tell.

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Any thoughts on whether Johnson might use those kids as the basis for his own trilogy?

I think this is a very astute theory.

 

My sion asked me about that scene and if that kid was a Jedi. I told him it was just a symbolic scene about hope for the disenfranchised... and it is-- but I feel like you're on to something.

 

Despite being mixed on TLJ, I still am interested to see his original trilogy. I feel like half the problems with TLJ was him inheriting a story he didn't start.

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It wouldn't shock me if there is a long time gap between 8 and 9 and that new kids have been trained by Rey. Maybe not that kid specifically, but that doesn't matter. I mean right now the Resistance almost doesn't exist its hard to imagine them doing anything. I kinda think 9 could be several years into the future, where the scroll tells us the First Order controls the whole galaxy, our heroes have been working behind the scenes to try to build an actual rebellion and that now is the moment they have chosen to finally act.

 

Ofcourse I'm probably wrong.

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The idea was to blow Endor up only if the shield generator went down.

Yes of course it was, but what's the point then? The rebels on the moon aren't the real threat anymore. If the shield goes down you need to destroy the ships attacking the death star even faster now. Your priorities don't change. You have far more assets on that moon than the rebels do. You don't use a super weapon to take out mere infantry. The rebel ships alone are a higher priority, not to mention the number of people on them are probably more numerous than those on the moon, plus they hold more strategic value. What's better, taking out 20 infantry or a capital ship with specialized personnel and high ranking officers? Shooting the moon is a laughably dumb idea and is obviously why the scene was cut. It may have made more sense in some other version of the movie they may have been playing with though, just not the final cut.

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The idea was to blow Endor up only if the shield generator went down.

Yes of course it was, but what's the point then? The rebels on the moon aren't the real threat anymore. If the shield goes down you need to destroy the ships attacking the death star even faster now. Your priorities don't change. You have far more assets on that moon than the rebels do. You don't use a super weapon to take out mere infantry. The rebel ships alone are a higher priority, not to mention the number of people on them are probably more numerous than those on the moon, plus they hold more strategic value. What's better, taking out 20 infantry or a capital ship with specialized personnel and high ranking officers? Shooting the moon is a laughably dumb idea and is obviously why the scene was cut. It may have made more sense in some other version of the movie they may have been playing with though, just not the final cut.

 

Sure, the Imperials have more assets, but as a percentage of their assets, the rebels would hurt more from the loss. They were basically all-in at Endor. If the whole of the rebel ground forces were wiped out and their starships destroyed, perhaps by the explosion of the planet (or is it a moon?), the loss of Imperials on Endor might be worth it to the Emperor.

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  • 5 months later...

I was thinking about this the other day. Rather than having another "Chosen One" like Anakin, Luke, Rey why not have several young characters discover The Force at once. Basically set the thing way, way in the future. 1,000 generations or whatever. The Jedi are truly gone. Not like ANH where they were gone for a generation. I mean if you mentioned Jedi or The Force to someone they'd have no idea what you meant. They are truly and completely forgotten and in the past.

 

You have a group of 5-7 kids,, equal number boys and girls, maybe an alien in the group. When I say kids i mean 16-20 or so, not little kids. They live on some kind of occupied planet. Their little village is attacked and some of their parents are killed, some are taken to prison. The 5-7 kids escape into the mountains or wilderness. While hiding they find an old long forgotten Jedi Temple. They find a cache of lightsabers and old Jedi teachings, perhaps in the form of holograms. They teach themselves the Force. Maybe a couple of them aren;t able to learn it which could cause problems and jealousy.

 

The main focus of the first movie is the kids learning the force, avoiding the bad guys and then saving their imprisoned parents and freeing their village or planet or whatever. Simple stuff.

 

Going forward you have some natural storylines that could develop. One or more of the friends turns dark, maybe the friend who can't learn The Force feels marginalized and goes to the bad guys. And since in the first movie they were all friends there would be a sadness to all of them breaking up. Like of the original 7 friends maybe

 

1 dies end of first movie

2 stay good and become new Jedi

2 turn dark

1 cant learn the Force

1 goes off on their own and becomes bounty hunter/criminal whatever

 

There would be natural relationships set up in the first movie that could be broken apart, made stronger, broken and then repaired as the trilogy goes on and perhaps even past one trilogy.

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That's ridiculous. You know they won't; why even say something like that? It just shows how bitter you are about something that's supposed to be entertaining. One poorly performing movie isn't reason enough to cancel future projects. Just because you didn't like RJ's take on Luke, et al., in TLJ doesn't mean he can't tell a good original story set in the SW universe.

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It's completely ridiculous to think that Lucasfilm would fire a director that they've hired to develop a Star Wars movie.

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Ha! No. But Solo underperforming at the box office is hardly due to RJ. There's no real evidence that TLJ influenced Solo's ticket sales, beyond the possible timing of the releases. If the Disney/LFL leadership are going to significantly change course, do you really think they're going to make such decisions based on one film that maybe they didn't expect to make a lot of money on? They gambled on Solo and didn't win. That's not a reason to change. A string of failures at the box office, a loss of sales of SW merchandise, and dismal attendance at their SW entertainment parks would be a sign to change their approach.

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The fact that Lucasfilm doesn't seem to have any vision for Star Wars puts every decision and hire in jeopardy. Has nothing to do with Solo. Lucasfilm seems to have just gotten an order to provide a certain number of films per year, and never bothered to try to figure out what they wanted.

 

Johnson probably isn't getting fired, because he's already proven that he can play in the sandbox. He and JJ are probably the two safest directors for Star Wars now. JJ will provide safe movies that most fans like, but seem a little light on multiple viewings (much like every JJ film) and Johnson is going to make critically acclaimed risky movies that divide fans.

 

Personally, I think the smart move would've been to get JJ for the entire trilogy and hire Johnson for non-Skywalker films. Johnson is great, but he really is best when doing his own thing, and they really would've benefited from a safe, good, Skywalker trilogy.

 

None of this really has anything to do with Solo, though. From the moment they announced the film, the general response was "meh".

 

They should've just grabbed Edgar Wright earlier and begged him to convert Baby Driver into Solo's origin story.

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What one vision could there possibly be? Any vision for SW will alienate a vocal portion of the pre-existing fan base. Maybe they're just feeling out what works and what doesn't. Rogue One, with all new characters and tangentially related to the main plot of the original film, was popular. Solo, a backstory for a popular character, not so popular. There's no trend to determine what could happen yet, but maybe anthology films about new characters and separate plots will do better than spin-off films about pre-existing characters. Long-term fans have always had preconceived notions about what their favorite characters were like before the films. It's one reason, of the many, that the prequels are so reviled. Nobody had their childhood vision brought to the screen. A Boba Fett film or an Obi-wan in exile film, may not deliver anything the fans expect (just like R1 wasn't about a star fighter squadron).

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A vision doesn't have to a narrative, like Marvel with everything leading to Inifinity War.

A cohesive vision or theme could work as well. For example, I find it very confusing that TLJ decides have the deepest thematic content of any SW movie ever, but since SW stories are told in a grand sweeping simple way, that message was bludgeoned over our head-- nothing is sacred, the past is not precious, change your expectations, destroy the familiar.

 

At yet Solo and R1 tell is the exact opposite: celebrate the nostalgia, connect the dots in a new, buts safely familiar way, the OT is the end all, be all.

 

Those are two very different messages, even if somebody thinks that all movies are just popcorn escapism, those concepts will soak into their head.

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Guest El Chalupacabra

That's ridiculous. You know they won't; why even say something like that? It just shows how bitter you are about something that's supposed to be entertaining. One poorly performing movie isn't reason enough to cancel future projects. Just because you didn't like RJ's take on Luke, et al., in TLJ doesn't mean he can't tell a good original story set in the SW universe.

Didn't care for TLJ so it is NOT ridiculous. OMG someone actually hates TLJ and doesn't think the same as you. How appalling! TLJ was a freaking episode, Pav. If he can't be bothered to do an episode correctly, then I have no interest in seeing any other Star Wars movies from Rian Johnson. Clearly you like TLJ, which is fine. But I have zero interest in that guy's work, at least where Star Wars is concerned.

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A vision doesn't have to a narrative, like Marvel with everything leading to Inifinity War.

 

A cohesive vision or theme could work as well. For example, I find it very confusing that TLJ decides have the deepest thematic content of any SW movie ever, but since SW stories are told in a grand sweeping simple way, that message was bludgeoned over our head-- nothing is sacred, the past is not precious, change your expectations, destroy the familiar.

 

At yet Solo and R1 tell is the exact opposite: celebrate the nostalgia, connect the dots in a new, buts safely familiar way, the OT is the end all, be all.

 

Those are two very different messages, even if somebody thinks that all movies are just popcorn escapism, those concepts will soak into their head.

 

I think that the ability to tell different stories with different themes and POV is potentially the strength of the franchise going forward.

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That's ridiculous. You know they won't; why even say something like that? It just shows how bitter you are about something that's supposed to be entertaining. One poorly performing movie isn't reason enough to cancel future projects. Just because you didn't like RJ's take on Luke, et al., in TLJ doesn't mean he can't tell a good original story set in the SW universe.

Didn't care for TLJ so it is NOT ridiculous. OMG someone actually hates TLJ and doesn't think the same as you. How appalling! TLJ was a freaking episode, Pav. If he can't be bothered to do an episode correctly, then I have no interest in seeing any other Star Wars movies from Rian Johnson. Clearly you like TLJ, which is fine. But I have zero interest in that guy's work, at least where Star Wars is concerned.

It's not that we disagree. It's that you have unrealistic expectations. You'd be better off asking for a refund of your TLJ tickets

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