THREAD FOR THOSE WHO HATED THE MOVIE

You know, there was a basic thing to do to protect your movies AND the customers.

You know just like something like : We worked very hard to make a movie that would please the fans, we know that some people didn't like it and we're sorry for them that they didn't like it. We really hope that our future movies will please them a lot and that they will enjoy the journey in a GFFA with all of us because we care of all the fanbase ...

Not a big sentence, not a big deal and everybody would have move on.

 

People haven't moved on...

 

I don't follow Rian Johnson on Twitter ...

It's not to the director to do that, it's LFL executives ...

 

It seems strange to me to expect a studio to apologize for a film. Can you imagine how the press would cover that? Lucasfilm doesn't own fans an apology.

 

I'm not sure fans are caring about the press. The press don't pay to see movies. Fans do.

 

Basically the same thing happen here under world cup. A player made a mistake in the last minute and we lost the game.

X criticize the player for that bad performance. Y criticism the player in a racism way.

People take a stand against that Y group and the X group start to victimize there self. "You cant criticize a football player anymore?"

 

Treating films like products is wrong. Art is never a product. Movie franchises are not services. Sure, for movie studios, they are products but for everyone else they should not be, must not be thought of as such. Films are massive endaevours, sure, but calling them "products" or, even worse "content," strips them away from any magic. If you're treating films like products, then you turn them into pornography.

Let me tell you a secret - every film ever has been disliked by someone. Sometimes this group is larger, sometimes smaller, but it always exists. A goal of all but every filmmaker is to make a film that resonates with an audience and it's of course sad that some people do not like a film, but that does never warrant an apology. There's a plethora of worse films than The Last Jedi that barely anyone is fond of, but no one ever issued an official apology for these people. The thing with art is that you're not going to resonate with it all the time. I am a fan of MCU and I really dislike Avengers: Infinity War. Its story was misguided and manipulative. Do I need an apology from Kevin Feige? No. He has more important things to do than deal with than a twenty-one-year-old biochemistry student. You're not going to please everyone with your film, even that's your goal and no one should ever apologise for that. What Rian is doing on Twitter is extra courtesy. Doing apologies like that would mean that all films should be as risk-averse as possible and that would just lead to a flood of Geostorms or Justice Leagues - films tht are basically for no one because of their blandness. Do we really want that because I'm starting to fear that for some people this is the future of franchise filmmaking that they want...

 

I saw Star Wars in the theater when it first came out (I was nine). Saw every one since as soon as they came out. TLJ is the only other than TPM that didn't get a return visit. My kids LOVED the prequels and original trilogy, were 'meh' about TFA and just weren't interested in TLJ after the first viewing. We didn't buy TLJ when it came out on digital (the only Star Wars movie we don't own). When it was recently released on Netflix, we started to watch it one night because my husband hadn't seen it (he's not a 'fan' but enjoys the movie). And...we stopped halfway through because we were bored. During the middle of a Canto Bight scene, my husband said "this is a really bad movie."

Despite the fact that I grew up with Star Wars and love the world Lucas created, I'm just not into the new movies despite being incredibly optimistic about them before TFA. I'm incredibly indifferent to them now, which is IMO worse than hating them. I have no emotional investment in the characters or outcome of the trilogy, and may or may not see the final installment in the theater. For me, the Star Wars story ended with ROTJ. No one involved in making them owes me an apology, however. I think Disney did an incredibly bad job of planning out the sequel trilogy and missed out on a huge opportunity. But they're in the business to make money, not please fans, and I understand that.

 

Why? Because now you know he did, so that goalpost has to be moved again?

 

Or.... you could not hire a writer who purposely wants to "subvert expectations" and be divisive. If you're doing your own movie, subverting and being divisive is fine, but when the movie that you're doing is supposed to be a continuation of an ongoing story in the biggest franchise ever then subverting and being divisive is not a real smart direction to go. I could search YouTube for this clip since someone on here will be screaming about proof, but there is a clip of an interview where Rian Johnson is asked if any of the criticism of TLJ is valid and he quickly says "No!" Really? So people having issues with Leia Poppins or Luke unceremoniously dying isn't a valid criticism to him and his movie his flawless? That's the impression he gave. Meanwhile, JJ Abrams and George Lucas have admitted making mistakes in their SW movies and have talked about how they should have changed certain things. Not Rian though, his creation was a masterpiece. And that is why I have no further interest in anything he does, SW related or otherwise.

 

Please do because these claims need to have evidence. I think I know what quote you're referring to and it was clearly in jest.

You're also applying a 15 year old quote to a movie that came out last year which is completely unfair. If the quote was about Star Wars I get it, but he wasn't talking about Star Wars.

Rian Johnson never said his film was flawless. These misrepresentations don't help your argument.

 

Oh, and by the way, has even talked like yesterday about this exact quote. Twitter is sometimes good.

 

Yeah, I know everything is in jest or just a joke... It isn't hard to go online and find his responses to criticism. He manages to take every single issue anyone has with the film and turn it into the audiences' problem. "I did that because...." "The audience needs to understand...." "Sorry you didn't like the film, but..." I have never seen him say anything like maybe he should have done something differently. That leads me to believe that he thinks he made something flawless, and he's given me every reason to think that. I don't care how old the quote is, he is on record as saying he likes for half the audience to hate his film, why should I think his position has changed in the years? He's also said several times he wanted to subvert expectations. Those are his own words. If you want to be divisive and subvert expectations, don't be surprised when you get a lot of negative reactions.

 

Is that what you want? A Joel Schumacher style mea culpa? If he’s proud of what he did, then why would he ever apologize for it? Just to appease the people that didn’t like it? I don’t have any strong feelings for RJ either way, but I’d certainly lose respect for any filmmaker who did that.

Yeah, and for the other half to love it. Because dwelling in some middle ground purgatory of ineffectualness, for an artist, is worse than being derided. For better or worse, at least you made people ‘feel’ something, which is the whole point.

 

I can't say that I agree with the final point. "Toxic fandom" is, to me, when fans make comments of a racial nature, a sexist nature, make threats against an individual's safety and well being, things like that.

Talking about how much someone feels a movie sucks - even on a daily basis - is every fan's God given right. Johnson knew (or perhaps I should say he should have known) what Star Wars was when he took the job. If he couldn't handle the inevitable responses, he should have politely declined.

 

I want to apologize beforehand as there is no way this won’t come off as snarky, but… I find it difficult to believe that you can be this indifferent about TLJ and having no emotional investment in the characters or outcome of the sequel trilogy and also regard SW as being over after RotJ, AND at the same time come here to talk about it. If you’re so bored and uninterested, then why would you spend time discussing TLJ on a forum? I mean, I personally count Alien as my favorite movie of all time, and I really like Aliens and the Assembly Cut of Alien3, but everything that came after those three movies in the franchise have been entirely uninteresting to me, and the thought of going onto Prometheus forums to talk about these films that means nothing to me seems like a completely ridiculous waste of my time. So, I wonder, what are your motives for posting here, since it is obviously not an interest in the films? I can understand people who feel heartbroken and disgusted about the film coming here to complain, but complaining about something you’re not interested in is utterly bizarre to me.

Again, I’m sorry for the snarkyness, but I’m truly puzzled by posts such as yours. (Just for the record, I’m an extremely please fan after Disney’s take-over and efforts, and TLJ is the best SW of all time.).

That's a very good point. Thank you

 

Is that an admission that the video on YouTube was the joke and not RJ dismissing criticism? I ask since you responded to my post without addressing the claim you made.

This is a strange conclusion. It seems that nothing RJ says is taken in good faith. By all accounts the guy is as humble and nice as anyone in the business and some act like he's evil.

 

Yes, it's crystal clear that Rian "it's all about me" Johnson is quite proud of himself and no, I do not want or expect an apology. It's all about his "art," his interpretation, his own desires, never about the overall continuing story. Yes, I get it.

 

Talk about a load of twaddle and babble. No wonder the story of TLJ was so incoherent. His answers are gloop...

 

You're giving me a headache. Again, how else am I supposed to interpret his own words? He may be nice, I don't find him all that humble.