Roundhead wanted to make a subversive opus, and have a big name attached to it, and he cared not about any wider coincidences.
It was like he wanted to get one over the audience, to show how much smarter he is than the moviegoers.
I sometimes listen to the podcast Unspooled. It's one of those podcasts that is fine, but you only ever listen when quickly looking for the next podcast to put on. In this case, I'm on a run. The podcast I regularly listen to ends, just look for anything in my feed that seems fine. This week was films of this year.
Star Wars came up in relation to Marvel films. Paul mentioned that Star Wars forgot it needed to be fun. Amy mentioned that why she really liked TLJ is that it was subversive because it got away from everything typically Star Wars like who your family is defines whether you're a hero. So the typical left critic who thinks the film is really good but is an idiot in their reasoning.
Strangely, the standard for liking TLJ is that it wasn't predictable trash. Yet that subversion only relies on you being able to envision Star Wars as predictable trash with the same plot rehashed. It's a dumb take, but it probably gets to the disconnect. Those that embrace the micro story of the characters we're following, but also embrace the macro story of the larger world and galaxy. Where Star Wars has infinite possibilities. Not just the basic plot of the OT.
It seems JJ Abrams rehash help set the stage for why the critic class like TLJ. It was uninspired. The next writer was even worse, but his "the opposite" for some reason worked on them. It also reinforces the view that those that like TLJ aren't actually Star Wars fans.
Paul's take was interesting, he didn't go into specifics but recently on a How Did This Get Made Miniepisode was talking about how great The Acolyte is with Jason Mantzoukas. It was complete shilling. In no way seemed authentic. They of course know Leslie Hedland as she has been on the podcast. Was praising her. Do they like it? Who knows, but it came across as a shill. Which I get on some level as they work in the industry, have friends involved in projects. Want to be hired by these studios. I couldn't help but shake it that Paul was referring to The Acolyter as forgetting to be fun, as it's the most recent thing and the most boring. Who knows though.
I feel like them, as well as people on other podcasts I regularly listen to often contradict themselves over time. I swear countless times I've heard people talk shit, mention they didn't like TLJ or various other things where I'm like, "I swear at the time you were saying it was good." Which goes with the territory of these podcasts with people in the industry. Always take with a grain of salt from Crait.
