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Abrams or Johnson - who is the worst ST director?

posted 5 years ago by [deleted]
145 replies | jump to latest

JJ Abrams' speciality is fast action that doesn't give you time to think about the many plotholes and coincidences and gimmicks like lens flares and mystery boxes, and being highly unoriginal by repackaging old material and making it look new. Thus, he rehashes A New Hope with The Force Awakens, and with The Rise of Skywalker, brings back the villain from Return of the Jedi certified dead by Lucas, simply because he had no imagination and no intention of actually creating a new villain.

Rian Johnson's speciality is to subvert expectations and make movies that divide the fanbase, presumably because it invites open debate and discussion, but he seems like a highly competent director willing to take risks.

So I would say that ABRAMS is the worst director. Unlike Johnson who at least tried to take the story in a new direction although he didn't quite "get" Star Wars and who got most fans quite upset, Abrams is happy to play it safe and just repeat what came before, which is typical of the Hollywood money machine these days, but then goes and totally ruins the Original Trilogy, rather than just copying part of it, by undoing the old movies he's copying, or "homaging".

I would say, personally, that Abrams offended ME the most.

[–] overseas7 (3984) 5 years ago

I can just say that Episode VIII was terrible, horrible..

[–] Scape (523) 5 years ago

This is almost exactly how I feel about the Sequel Trilogy. I’ve always thought Abrams’ is best at being a Producer, kind of like George Lucas, than he is as a Director. JJ just rips off Spielberg, but it’s always poorly done. It has the “flash” of Spielberg, but not the heart.

Johnson on the other hand is a good Director, but like you said he didn’t “get” Star Wars. He did at least try something new though, so I can’t fault him for that.
Best result would have been if Johnson & JJ had sat down and worked out the whole Trilogy beforehand. With Abrams Producing and Johnson Directing. JJ could’ve kept Johnson inline with Star Wars lore, while Johnson pushed JJ into new creative territory. I’m sure it would have been better than the disjointed Trilogy we have now.

I hated The Last Jedi, but agree - Johnson is by far the better Director.

[–] triplea (3577) 5 years ago

abrams is the bigger hack
johnson is the bigger dumbass

[–] moviefanatic505 (6054) 5 years ago

Both are more successful than you will ever be.

[–] triplea (3577) 5 years ago

At being a hack or dumbass, sure I agree.

Not you though, so well done.

[–] moviefanatic505 (6054) 5 years ago

Right because you are capable of making a good story... Get back to me once you are a successful film maker.

[–] triplea (3577) 5 years ago

I'm easily more capable - not that the bar is set very high.

[–] moviefanatic505 (6054) 5 years ago

If you were you would be doing it. You are an armchair quarterback.

[–] triplea (3577) 5 years ago

At the end of the day one thing is for sure - I am significantly more capable than you, at everything in life.

[–] moviefanatic505 (6054) 5 years ago

Lol and the armchair quarterback continues to flex his internet muscles.

[–] Ace_Spade (9506) 5 years ago

Have you seen The Phantom Menace? It might be Lucas...

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Oh yeah, that POS movie that has no bearing on Star Wars whatsoever. Same with AOTC.

To me, the Star Wars movies actually begin with Revenge of the Sith. I prefer to start with that instead.

[–] Ace_Spade (9506) 5 years ago

I'm an OT fan; you can keep everything else, as far as I'm concerned.

Each subsequent movie has had its moments, I like them more or less as entertainments, but as a part of the Star Wars saga - not for me. I don't usually like the lore they come up with, anyway.

Phantom Menace retconned Yoda as Obi-Wan's master and made the Jedi Council some kind of bureaucratic political body (what?)

Attack of the Clones zapped the life out of Anakin's relationships with Obi-Wan and Padme (neither relationship was written well) and I always liked thinking of "The Clone Wars" as more of a Manchurian Candidate thing, full of mistrust and espionage as much as armies clashing. Just me, maybe.

Revenge of the Sith doesn't wrap things up nicely. Anakin murders children because he's afraid Padme will die? But there's no clear way to save Padme, so...? Padme just dies during childbirth...? Obi-Wan and Yoda just give up...? There were ways to make these plot threads tie up nicely, but Revenge didn't do it.

The Force Awakens bungles the thirty year gap so abominably - resenting not only plot points (The Empire never died, apparently - our heroes fought for nothing), but characters (Han is a deadbeat dad who abandoned his friends and lost the Falcon? No. No, no, no, no...)

The Last Jedi flops around trying to be original and surprising, forgetting to tell a coherent story with excellence.

The Rise of Skywalker flops around more trying to weld nine movies into one ending, but with TFA contradicting RotJ and TLJ contradicting TFA, it's impossible to do so.

Rogue One was boring and made Leia looking dumb and less useful than she looked in A New Hope. Ugh.

I haven't seen Solo or The Clone Wars.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I like ROTS for far more reasons than the other two Prequels put together. TPM is childish and AOTC is boring.

[–] Ace_Spade (9506) 5 years ago

It might be the best of the prequels, yeah. But the first thing I think of when I think of that movie is the first moments of Darth Vader - so masterfully presented up until he takes his first breath. It's quite chilling and portentous...then Lucas wrote some dialogue.

It's not good. It's quite bad and perfunctory until it climaxes with "NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooo...!" and at that point I'm laughing and one of the only things the prequels were doing right it just flushed down the drain.

I sorta remember liking Palpatine fighting Mace Windu.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

The Jedi Purge? Wow, that was dark, even for Star Wars. Everything about that just feels so great.

[–] Heisenberg (6652) 5 years ago

I agree with your position, I wouldn't praise Johnson in any way but compared to a talentless thief that works only for pleasing his bosses, he's at least trying.

[–] BurningSun (717) 5 years ago

Johnson is definitely the better director in general, but I don’t think he was right for the middle movie in a Star Wars trilogy. Regardless, Johnson tried and failed to do something unique, whereas Abrams focused solely on nostalgia and techniques to bring fanboys in.

[–] JoWilli (18674) 5 years ago

Abrams, after he had to mop up the mess left by Johnson.

[–] tom8 (3114) 4 years ago

TFA was the worst.... it was just a rehash of the first star wars movie....... the last jedi and the rise of skywalker at least were different