This take assumes all of this was his decision and not the studio with billions sunk into a franchise they were desperate to milk.
Look at his other movies, like Brick or Knives Out, he can direct a movie to fucking greatness. And he is committed to writing AND directing so the only way those ham fisted bullshit narrative loopholes could find their way into his movie is if it was put there by studio interference. I agree that he had a couple of bad ideas which changed the physics of Star Wars, showing a misunderstanding of the material, but he was always a film nerd who loved Star Wars for its technical innovations and story telling techniques and not a committed fan who loved the universe.
Rian Johnson is a good director who had uncharacteristic ideas in his one big studio movie that didn’t fit his normal output.
The thing is- Brick and Knives Out are not sci-fi. It takes a certain kind of person to do sci-fi properly and it wasn’t him. Norman Jewison was a great director, but I wouldn’t call Rollerball an amazing piece of science fiction. Robert Altman’s only science fiction film, Quintet, was rightfully a flop because it was awful. Howard Hawks was an incredible director, but The Thing from Another World, his only science fiction movie, is pretty darn cheesy.
All three men were very talented, but none of them really understood sci-fi.
This take assumes all of this was his decision and not the studio with billions sunk into a franchise they were desperate to milk.
Look at his other movies, like Brick or Knives Out, he can direct a movie to fucking greatness. And he is committed to writing AND directing so the only way those ham fisted bullshit narrative loopholes could find their way into his movie is if it was put there by studio interference. I agree that he had a couple of bad ideas which changed the physics of Star Wars, showing a misunderstanding of the material, but he was always a film nerd who loved Star Wars for its technical innovations and story telling techniques and not a committed fan who loved the universe.
Rian Johnson is a good director who had uncharacteristic ideas in his one big studio movie that didn’t fit his normal output.
The thing is- Brick and Knives Out are not sci-fi. It takes a certain kind of person to do sci-fi properly and it wasn’t him. Norman Jewison was a great director, but I wouldn’t call Rollerball an amazing piece of science fiction. Robert Altman’s only science fiction film, Quintet, was rightfully a flop because it was awful. Howard Hawks was an incredible director, but The Thing from Another World, his only science fiction movie, is pretty darn cheesy.
All three men were very talented, but none of them really understood sci-fi.
He did direct Looper though, which is top tier sci-fi.