Star Wars: The Last Jedi really did a number on fans as it sparked a lot of heated arguments. Those were some weird days for Star Wars fans. There was a time when a day didn’t go by without fans getting into an argument about this movie and the backlash against it on social media was so loud and strong. Well, I’m going to open that door again today because the director of the film, Rian Johnson, is talking about it again, and he says that he’s more proud of the Star Wars movie he made than ever.
The filmmaker explained in a recent interview with Empire Magazine:
“I’m even more proud of it five years on. When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball. I think it’s impossible for any of us to approach Star Wars without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us. The ultimate intent was not to strip away – the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of Star Wars in our lives.”
One of the things that fans seemed to hate about the movie was how Luke Skywalker was handled in the story. Even Mark Hamill took issue with it! But, Johnson still stands behind how he handled the character and once again tried to explain his motivation behind it, saying:
“The final images of the movie, to me, are not deconstructing the myth of Luke Skywalker, they’re building it, and they’re him embracing it. They’re him absolutely defying the notion of, ‘Throw away the past,’ and embracing what actually matters about his myth and what’s going to inspire the next generation. So for me, the process of stripping away is always in the interest of getting to something essential that really matters.”
Johnson definitely made the most controversial Star Wars film and it just didn’t sit well with fans. The whole sequel trilogy was kind of a mess, though. When you watch those films back to back, it just doesn’t work. Lucasfilm shat the bed with that trilogy. They should have had all those films properly planned out before they started shooting the movies. But, what’s done is done.
How do you feel about The Last Jedi after all this time has passed? What do you think about what Johnson had to say about it here?