Rian Johnson Responds To Star Wars: The Last Jedi Criticism

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is currently the least favorite of all the Star Wars movies at Rotten Tomatoes, with the audience likability rating now having dropped to 55%.

Business Insider caught up with Rian Johnson where the director responds to the Star Wars: The Last Jedi criticism:

“Having been a Star Wars fan my whole life, and having spent most of my life on the other side of the curb and in that fandom, it softens the blow a little bit,” said Johnson of the criticism. “I’m aware through my own experience that, first of all, the fans are so passionate, they care so deeply — sometimes they care very violently at me on Twitter. But it’s because they care about these things, and it hurts when you’re expecting something specific and you don’t get it from something that you love. It always hurts, so I don’t take it personally if a fan reacts negatively and lashes out on me on Twitter. That’s fine. It’s my job to be there for that. Every fan has a list of stuff they want a Star Wars movie to be and they don’t want a Star Wars movie to be. You’re going to find very few fans out there whose lists line up. And I also know the same way the original movies were personal for Lucas. Lucas never made a Star Wars movie by sitting down and thinking, ‘What do the fans want to see?’ And I knew if I wrote wondering what the fans would want, as tempting as that is, it wouldn’t work, because people would still be shouting at me, ‘F— you, you ruined Star Wars,’ and I would make a bad movie. And ultimately, that’s the one thing nobody wants. And let me just add that 80-90% of the reaction I’ve gotten from Twitter has been really lovely. There’s been a lot of joy and love from fans. When I talk about the negative stuff, that’s not the full picture of the fans at all.”

It’s hard to agree with anything that Rian Johnson has to say, especially following how he handled Luke Skywalker. It’s actually almost as if Rian Johnson intentionally went in to do a disservice to the fans. This week I found myself questioning if Rian Johnson is even a fan of Star Wars in the first place because everything I saw in Star Wars: The Last Jedi supports that possibility.

I’ve said it before but Star Wars: The Last Jedi is an example of Disney simply catering to the mindless fans. Disney doesn’t have to give their “all” in creating a great movie when they know the masses will support anything they put out.

It’s a shame.

When fans are stating they would rather have had a Jar Jar Binks movie than what they got with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, you know something is definitely wrong.