Why does he get away with doing almost nothing original?

Originality as an actor? Director? Writer?

He is a stage actor/director and gravitates towards well-known productions from that field.

I have never particularly liked him as an actor - I think he lacks charisma and presence, which is of course required for Shakespearean leads. His Hamlet is an excellent film, handsomely mounted and beautifully acted across the board - with the glaring exception of its prince.

I will admit that he was okay as Henry V but I disliked him intensely in Much Ado. I saw him twice on stage many years ago and he was very good - I think that will always be his natural home.

I think that his doing Emma Thompson was very original.

A lack of originality is the least of this guy's problems as a director. The problem with him as a director is that he is pretentious and shallow. His movies always seem to forgo substance and nuance for extravagance and style, as he tends to favor big, fancy sets and needlessly exaggerated camera angles over meaningful artistic choices. Despite his fidelity for most of the stories he adapts, he often seems to fail to understand the actual meaning or intent of the books/plays he's basing his films on, making them often feel more like high school renditions of classic plays over the real thing.

That, mixed with his lack of common sense in regards to how to use the camera, along with his tendency to get piss poor performances out of his actors, makes him an all-around terrible director in my eyes. To me, he's in the same boat as Tom Hooper, a guy who makes these big, fancy Oscar caliber dramas that somehow always manages to get Academy voters wet, while displaying little-to-no actual talent or skill. He's a hack.