I, like many others, have been a dedicated Star Wars fan since I was in diapers, and like many others I was not pleased with the most recent installment of the film. Unlike other reviews of the overall poorly received film, I don’t want to write a rant article on how horrible it was, but how it could have been improved. Of course the film wasn’t entirely bad, but it was far from perfect, and I would like to touch on a few points that I think would have made the movie better
Rey’s training
It’s one thing for Rey to go into training for a brief amount of time and become a Jedi badass, but it’s another thing when you’re doing absolutely nothing during that time. The most training Luke gave Rey was talking her through using her force powers once, and then telling her to get off the island after he saw how raw her strength was. So why can she magically control this strength after her visit with Master Skywalker, as well as become more than sufficient with a Lightsaber? If there were actual scenes where Luke trained Rey, teaching her how to swordfight and control her force powers, then maybe Rey wouldn’t be considered the most prolific Mary Sue in the series.
Leia Poppins
Why in the world would Rian Johnson make up force powers for Princess Leia to keep her alive in Carrie Fisher’s last performance? Leia is expected to return in the next Star Wars film, and there’s no footage of Carrie Fisher provided for that. This was the one and only chance in the series to give her a worthwhile goodbye, and it was squandered. Not to mention, where did this even come from? She was passed out, in the vacuum of space (the pressure of which will literally make your eyes pop out of your skull), and somehow managed to magically float to the door and wait to be brought inside. If this was altogether cut from the movie, then the end result would have been so much better.
Yoda?
Imagine being handed a blank check to make the best movie possible in a franchise that simply cannot fail, and then coming up with the abomination above. Is he a puppet? Is he CGI? Whatever it is, it’s almost as bad as Henry Cavill’s mustache removal in Justice League, if not worse. Why couldn’t Rian Johnson just use the prequel Yoda, which a lot of fans have actually grown accustomed to? Or, why not just a puppet with no CGI? A choice had to be made, and riding the centerline is what turned this version of everyone’s favorite character into an absolute disaster.
Character Development
The character development that J.J. Abrams built for all of the newly created Star Wars characters has gone completely out the window in the very next film. Poe isn’t the lovable hotshot anymore, now he’s an idiotic hothead. The mystery and feminine badassery that surrounded Rey turned into cardboard like facial expressions and the ability to be unreasonably good at everything. How on Earth (or in a galaxy far, far away…) can you expect to introduce new characters when you can’t even properly use the ones you already possess? Rose wasn’t supposed to be the new Jar Jar Binks, yet an overall lack of developmental writing turned her into that. Perhaps Rian Johnson should have let someone with more experience pen the script?
Fight scenes
The only redeeming quality of this film are the fight scenes towards the end. When Kylo and Rey are taking on Snoke’s Imperial Guards, it’s quite possibly one of the best duels in Star Wars history. The choreography was brilliant and seamless, and let me go home with a level of enjoyment. Not to mention all of the explosions and chaos during their escape from the base, which was an aesthetically pleasing sequence of events. In an overall flawed movie, this let off a sense of classic Star Wars destruction, and I’m sure it gave every fan a certain satisfaction.