Thus far, all the hubbub about this film’s production arouses my interest more than the film itself.
Likewise. I’ve spent more time in the past 48 hours thinking about/looking into this film than I’ve paid attention to it since it was announced. Still won’t see it, but I’d read the crap out of a making-of book.
I’ve always felt he’s a competent and underrated director. I enjoy A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Cinderella Man, and Willow for instance. In fact, his handling of Willow (yes, I know critics didn’t like it much, but I love it!) gives me confidence in his ability to handle a Star Wars movie.
While you couldn’t pay me to see this film, I get the frustration fans are feeling with the appointment of Howard and Disney/Lucasfilm’s attitude in general. If it wasn’t obvious by now with TFA, Rogue One’s extensive reshoots and now this nonsense with Han Solo; these films are clearly being made by suits in a boardroom.
You don’t sink 200 million into a film to get art, you do it to make a billion. People seem to forget that Disney is a business, not an arthouse studio. This is obvious to anyone who actually thinks about it from a business perspective, but I suppose the general population doesn’t, which is why this is such a shock to the system and raising more than a few eyebrows.
So I guess the problem is that yes, he can handle a Star Wars movie, but the movie he’ll be handling will be what he’s told to do, as opposed to L&M who would have at the very least done something different. JJ is also a competent director, but TFA isn’t exactly an inspired work of art.
Lucas did a fair number of stupid things over the years, but Episodes I - VI were not made by suits to fit the category of "this is what a Star Wars movie should be."
I stopped seeing Marvel movies because it became an endless stream of the studio ticking requirement-checkboxes and the same rehashed formula over and over again, I don’t want to do that with Star Wars, but it seems every new Star Wars movie that comes out has studio meddling written all over it, this obviously being the worst case.