Johnson just seemed bent on the angle of “I’m going to shake up the Star Wars franchise and turn it on it’s ear”. Where did he get off deciding the franchise needed shaking up? What it needs are great characters and stories.
Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. See: The Empire Strikes Back.
He didn’t “get off” anywhere, I don’t think? Not looking at all the behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, at least. It seems like the “angle” he was bent on WAS “great characters and stories.” If that happened to “shake up” people who watched it, all the better, but the idea he superficially went in to trash Lucasfilm’s hotel room seems weird and unfounded to me. He’s not Josh Trank or anything, LOL.
But it seemed like a fairly traditional Star Wars movie to me in most aspects. For as controversial as the film’s since become, there isn’t much in it that you can’t source back to earlier films setting precedent.
Anyway, the themes of the Star Wars movies are:
The Throne Room
The Imperial March
The Forest Battle
Duel of the Fates
Across the Stars
Battle of the Heroes
The Scavenger
The Resistance is Reborn
We Go Together
Special mention to The Asteroid Field, TIE Fighter Attack, Luke & Leia, and Han Solo & the Princess.