As for “subverting expectations,” I think people read to much into that to mean Johnson was trying to annoy fans at every turn or something.
Only skimmed the video, but aside from the fact that none of the clips are from the time he was making TLJ, it’s seems to be his philosophy is a common and easily understood one that a film that inspires strong feelings one way or another is more exciting than a film that just gets a shrug across the board. Though that’s harder to fit into a clickbait headline I guess, and doesn’t fit the theory that he hates fans, which he so clearly does.
Not pointing Luke specifically, just the story. I guess you could argue that the final scene in TFA has the weight of the Luke we know from the OT, but you could argue just as easily that it leads just as well into TLJ’s version of Luke so it’s a wash, really.
Luke we already know as an established character by the end of ROTJ. The Luke we see in TLJ just plainly isn’t the same character. You can classify it as “growth” or “character development” or whatever, but it’s not really an expansion of the Luke character we’ve seen before as it is a complete alteration of the core character. It was like a “what if” version of Luke where maybe he failed to defeat the Emperor and redeem his father and fell into despair or something. The whole movie kinda felt like a “what if” thing.
I completely disagree of course. Luke has always been my favorite character and I’m glad they gave him a compelling story rather than just “perfect old Jedi who exiled himself to learn the bestest powers.”
And Mark Hamill completely disagrees with you. Funny how that works.
What is is with people thinking that others should just bow their heads and accept Hamill’s opinion as their own?
The irony is that Rian gave him the best material I’ve ever seen him work with, and a showcase for him and the character that, I would argue, is adoring to a fault. Rian has mentioned that Luke is his favorite character, and honestly not only do I think that’s obvious from the finished film, I wish he could have measured this bias, because, even though I share Rian’s preference, in the end Luke upstages what’s supposed to be the film’s actual main character. In this regard I think TFA was a bit more successful with its treatment of Han.