I thought about this one night as I was trying to go to sleep.
The big problem with the sequel trilogy was that there was no unifying vision for all three movies. One person just copied A New Hope. Then a different director wanted to challenge expectations. That was controversial, so they got the same person from before, only now he has to deal with plot points from two movies that he has no idea how to resolve. Plus it’s got to be Star Wars-y. He provided what he thought Star Wars fans wanted–a twist parentage, last-minute heel-turn from the villain, feel-good ending, etc.
This results in three big problems:
- Repetition. You’re not making references, you’re duplicating plot beat-for-beat. Thus we know what’s coming. Thus we are bored. These aren’t callbacks, they’re copycats. Besides, you don’t want callbacks anyway. That’s what made Ghostbusters (2016) bad. Let the new team stand out on their own. Go for reflection, not repetition.
- Junk like Rey being a Mary Sue (she pilots the Millennium Falcon with no problem, can do advanced Force techniques with no training, etc.).
- Miraculous coincidences like Maz getting Luke’s lost lightsaber and Poe suddenly showing back up with no explanation of where he was or how he got back. He’s part of the big three, but out for half the movie.
Here’s how I would fix it.
Everything before Finn and Rey escape Jakku can stay. That’s all fine. Not great, but fine. It introduces us to our big three characters. Finn and Poe are already friends. BB-8 finds Rey and becomes her robot puppy. Finn finds them at the oasis.
But the First Order don’t find them this time. They don’t get involved in an airstrike that provokes them to hijack the Millennium Falcon that just HAPPENS to be there. No, Rey takes Finn back to her place and explains who she is and how she got there. Finn does the same, that he used to be a stormtrooper but deserted.
That’s the problem with all this–nothing is explained. Who was that stormtrooper who put the handprint on Finn’s helmet? And why did he do that? They obviously had some kind of connection, but it never comes up again. Why does Rey put on the X-Wing helmet? Does she want to be a resistance fighter? Is that a clue to her past? Why is Poe’s name for Finn so significant to him?
Giving Rey and Finn some time together, he can explain why he left and who Captain Phasma was and how the First Order is still recruiting stormtroopers. We also do some world-building, establish the antagonist, and redefine the goal and the setting (e.g. why Jakku is significant–it’s the site of the last big battle and people make a living scavenging wreckage). This is also both of their “refusal of the call”–Finn wants to stay and Rey’s too afraid to leave what she’s known (“I can’t leave my home, it’s scary out there”).
They don’t HAPPEN to run into Han Solo amidst the MILLIONS OF LIGHT YEARS OF SPACE BETWEEN THEM ALL, who just HAPPENS to be the previous owner of the very ship they stole. There isn’t a pointless action scene with hentai monsters and smugglers. Harrison Ford is not the same spritely rogue he was in 1977. We don’t need a lackluster performance from him. (Although I did like the fact that he’s now a believer. But he’s not the right mentor for Rey.)
But, what they don’t know is that Unkar, not willing to take “no” for an answer, sends some of his thugs back to Rey’s place and get BB-8. Then a fight occurs. Somehow they chase her out, forcing her to cross the threshold.
But before that, we’ve cut to Poe Dameron. Yes, let’s put him back in the story. I don’t know exactly what situation he’s in, maybe he’s been kidnapped by some group (like Tusken Raiders or a society of free droids). Maybe he’s taken by the First Order again (although that might be repetitive from the first act). In any case, it’s some situation where his fatal flaw/misbelief is challenged. This gets us accustomed to his character as well and increases sympathy for him. He doesn’t MIRACULOUSLY REAPPEAR LATER.
We cut back and forth to Rey’s and Poe’s plotlines for the first act. In any case, all three of them somehow get together and escape Jakku at the same time. That’s what solidifies them into a team, just like how Han, Luke, and Leia became a team after leaving the Death Star, coming together over triumph and mourning. That’s what’s missing from this trilogy (and what I said in my last article about Star Wars)–there’s no camaraderie. The three of them need to be doing things together, not their own separate things like they do in the entire trilogy. Poe and Rey don’t even meet each other until the end of Episode VIII. That’s atrocious.
And that’s as far as I got. I mean, there would be a few other things–they don’t meet with Han but they do meet with Leia. Learning that Kylo Ren is Leia’s son is a bigger devastation anyway, and it maintains a mystery of who’s the father (it’s obviously Han). But maybe Ren can kill his mother instead–that would be more dramatic. Why Kylo Ren does it, I don’t know. But he demonstrates no motivation in the first movie either.
Speaking of Kylo Ren, what changes about him? He can still be in the movie, I like him. I like his “spoiled man child” persona. I like that he idolizes Vader and wants to be like him. He’s a legacy. Entitled. He’s had every opportunity to succeed/be a Jedi, but screwed it up. But rather than improve himself, he’s looking for someone to blame (if that’s what he wanted, maybe he wanted to become a Sith, I don’t know).
So we need to do two things the movie didn’t–explain what the Knights of Ren are and establish what makes him a bigger threat than Vader. I say we swap out Snoke for the Knights of Ren. Kylo isn’t subservient to someone, he’s a leader, leading a bunch of mini-Vaders. Spreading his poison. (Side note: it might be cool to have Captain Phasma and Kylo Ren unite at some point, maybe not this movie, but somewhere).
And that’s all I’ve got so far. These are just the idle thoughts I have going to sleep. I’m not thrilled about the First Order. It’s the empire with the serial numbers scratched off. And Starkiller Base is another spherical space station with a big ass laser. What I’d replace them with, I don’t know. I just know that I don’t want to repeat the same old beats. Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.
