By now, you probably already know how you feel about Rian Johnson. There are some here at the site who think he disrespected the Star Wars franchise with The Last Jedi, there are some who think he misunderstood the franchise, and there are some (like me) who absolutely adored the emotionality and unpredictability he brought to what could have been a fairly pedestrian and safe middle-parter.

What is very clear in the two years since is that he is an auteur with a vision and that it’s a vision that very clearly did not align with what fans actually wanted. This is something Mark Hamill brought to his attention on several occasions, but Johnson was adamant that they worry about what they brought to the story, not cater to fans expectations

“I think approaching any creative process with that or anything with that second thing you said [making fandoms happy] would be a mistake that would lead to probably the exact opposite result,” Johnson said on the Swings & Mrs. Podcast.

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“Even my experience as a fan, you know if I’m coming into something, even if it’s something that I think I want, if I see exactly what I think I want on the screen, it’s like ‘oh, okay,’ it might make me smile and make me feel neutral about the thing and I won’t really think about it afterwards, but that’s not really going to satisfy me…” Johnson continued, “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.”

I have to say, these emotions Johnson said he wanted to feel in movies were exactly what I felt. I remember genuinely not knowing if or how the Resistance would survive, whether or not Rey would turn dark, or whether or not it would all lead to a happy ending. It was a feeling I hadn’t had in a Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back.

I also remember thinking to myself that the movie wasn’t holding anything back. I didn’t get the impression they were saving questions to be answered for the next movie, and in an era of franchises, it was refreshing. This was a movie that dared to leave it out all on the field and I loved it.

Sadly, it doesn’t seem as though many fans share my thoughts on this, but I guess that’s the great thing about stories and art. We all have our preferences and we all have our opinions.

But what do you think of Johnson’s comments? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: TheWrap