Humor has always been a part of “Star Wars” but for some audience members the jokes fell flat in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘. Now, director Rian Johnson is speaking out as to why he brought laughs into the mix and why he feels they work. To be honest, outside of the first gag between Poe and Hux running just about 10 seconds too long I am in complete agreement with Johnson and felt that not only were the laughs necessary but that they worked.
Why did Johnson feel that there needed to be humor?
“That was something that was really, really important to me. That’s part of what I enjoy in movies. It’s part of what I enjoy in ‘Star Wars.’ I think about Han and Leia and Luke wisecracking their way through the Death Star. The movies always had that sense of humor. Especially coming into the middle chapter, it has a stigma of always being darker. I knew it was going to get darker in some spots just because of what we had to do. It was really important to me, to, at the very outset, make a bold statement of, we’re going to have fun here also. Relax, you can laugh with it also, this isn’t just going to be a dirge.”
I couldn’t agree more! The humor was some of the most memorable scenes from the original trilogy and I suspect a few of these moments will stand the test of time for ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ as well. That isn’t to say Johnson wasn’t worried about how audiences would react to the jokes:
“That was the one thing I was most nervous about [the premiere] because we never tested these movies. This was the first time I’ve watched it with a crowd bigger than 10 or 15 people. The one thing that you can never know until you put it in front of a big crowd of strangers is if the jokes play or not. So I was very relieved when we got the laughs. Oh, that very first scene. That was really the one that was just, I was holding my girlfriend’s hand very tightly when that came up. Then I relaxed when the audience got it and started rolling with it. It’s so important to me because that sets the tone and the expectation that, oh, O.K. there are going to be laughs in this movie.”
While not everyone may have liked the jokes, clearly enough have embraced them and the film at this point. Still, it is a story that has had mixed reactions across the board. Between social media, friends, and probably family. However, as we all know you should never talk about politics, religion, or Star Wars with family!
Did you enjoy the humor that Rian Johnson injected in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ or was this an area you felt didn’t work? Were there any specific scenes which you really loved or hated in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ because of the humor? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Vanity Fair
