From fantasy epics to gritty thrillers, director Rian Johnson has been a person who has been delivering movies that are different from the usual mundane stuff that’s out there. He has been a director who loves to experiment with his movies, i.e, the plots, and twists. Albeit his movies having been on the critical side of reviews with some loving his work and writing, and some criticizing it, that hasn’t stopped the director from going with his instincts.
Such is the case as Rian Johnson had been feeling skeptical about his newly launched film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, a sequel to his 2019 movie Knives Out. The director was seen talking about the movie, especially the twist he was dicey about in the first place.
Rian Johnson Talks About the Andi Reveal
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery featured some epic twists, with one regarding Janelle Monáe’s character Andi Brand being central to the movie’s overall plot. Daniel Craig‘s Benoit Blanc ends up in another murder mystery in Glass Onion, which was very similar to its predecessor. Like the first Knives Out mystery, Glass Onion‘s twists and turns keep viewers guessing throughout the length of the movie, although one surprise revealed, changes the outlook of the entire film. This twist makes the movie’s first half entirely different.
Director Rian Johnson was apparently against the big Andi-Helen twist in his new movie. The director talks about the position of that big Andi reveal and says “it can’t just be seeing it from a different angle.” Johnson also said that when he got to the idea of twins, he says it felt like a “trope,”. He seemed very skeptical about even going on to say whether the audience would even forgive him for it.
Rian Johnson says,”I mean, that’s a challenge. I feel like the first question, OK, how do you pull this off? And I guess the primary thing was, it can’t just be seeing it from a different angle. It has to be enough of a basic perspective shift that there’s a new tension that’s introduced in the repeat of all the different scenes. This is what led to the idea of twins. By the process, I was dragged kicking and screaming to identical twins. I didn’t want to do it, it seemed like a horrible trope, and just, ‘Will the audience ever forgive me for this?’ [laughs]. But I think we get away with it because it’s not like a reveal at the end of ‘Aha! It was a twin!’ It’s a complication in the middle that leads to a deepening of the stakes and the story. So I think that’s why we get away with it.“
The idea of twins has received mixed reviews from viewers with some liking the twist and some finding it very bland as they felt the rest of the story was not strong enough to be lifted by one big reveal. The sequel has caught the audience’s attention and gossip regardless.
Director Rian Johnson Is Not New to Criticism
Director Johnson has tried to keep an element of suspense and thrill in each of his movies so far. He hasn’t shied away from experimenting, and while that has worked wonders for him in the past, it has also brought him fair share of criticism. With his 2017 release Star Wars: The Last Jedi still getting criticized 5 years after its release in the theatres.
Rian Johnson recently spoke about the 2017 Star Wars movie, which was criticized owing to its comedy. Johnson speaking about comedy in such a movie said, “Anyone who thinks that slightly goofy humor does not have a place in the Star Wars universe, I don’t know if they’ve seen ‘Return of The Jedi,’”. Johnson continued,
“The slightly self-aware element of gleeful humor is something that is part and parcel to ‘Star Wars. It’s not the whole thing, and we get very serious as well. And I think that kind of brazen balance of those two things is also something that is part of ‘Star Wars.’”
Despite the reviews Star Wars: The Last Jedi received, Johnson still stands by his movie, although we can notice how the movie’s acceptance by the audience has impacted his recent decisions in the movie sequel of Knives Out.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is currently streaming on Netflix.
Also read: Daniel Craig Will Return in Knives Out 3, Director Rian Johnson Has Begun Writing the Script
Source: The Wrap
