Personally I think this trilogy should have been set to a smaller scale and not at least partially focused on a rehash of rebellion versus empire because been there done that.
Yeah, the First Order was way too much a rehash of the Empire. And then there was yet another large round destroyer globe that had to be blown up by pilots. So much of this deja vu could have been eliminated pretty effortlessly.
In a huge universe of many different planets supporting humanoid life of various sizes and shapes, I'm not sure how anyone gets traction. Like, the First Order could have subjugated them? This is the Star Wars version of Star Trek Gobbledygookspeak -- basically all the complexity of trade and diplomacy just gets represented by a localized bad guys group and good guys group, but they certainly can't be everywhere nor control everyone with their infrastructure destroyed and a "cosmic powered baddie" like the Emperor removed. It just wasn't that convincing. It would have made more sense with more localized problems/conflicts but not on the scope the movie tried to suggest.
It should have focused on the OT characters at least initially and then slowly (you have three movies to work with) transitioned to the next generation. It should have dealt with a final resolution to the whole dark side light side dynamic and how Jedi/Sith or whatever fit into the framework of a new galactic age.
Lucas had the same problem with how to grapple with a full UNIVERSE of planets -- so we only see a handful of Jedi and he acts like they're all dead but Obi-wan, Luke, and Yoda.
Donaldson's "Covenant" series had this thing where when you graduated from your training, you could become a Lord and join the established "wizards/druids" so to speak, fighting Lord Foul -- or you could rescind local duty and instead become one of the Unfettered Ones, living out your days to learn / delve into certain world/cosmic truths in solitude... an individual devotion of your own choice, rather than the ones the Lords chose collectively.
Long story short, there have gotta be a lot of Jedi and Sith out there doing their own thing, not playing a part in this Universal battle. We could have stories about them. I think Rian Johnson would have enjoyed that better than having to play second boxcar in this particular train.
I think the real tragedy of the sequel trilogy is that it had characters that could have been compelling if someone had a cohesive vision for the trilogy and focused on the damn characters. It would have also helped to have had a company other than Disney running it. Disney is ultimately too focused on pushing the marketing of action figures etc etc. You know what ultimately sold Star Wars action figures to kids in the 70’s/80’s? Compelling characters. Concentrate on story and characters first and everything else will follow. Too many suits were involved here and they needed a director and a writer to helm the entire trilogy. None of this passing it off to the next guy that apparently has a completely different take on the franchise and characters than you do.
That was stupid. I remember when the announcement came out, and you had Abrams -> Johnson -> Trevorrow as the lineup. Talk about jarring, these are guys who don't really make the same kinds of movies. That's more for amateur fan fic hour.
Snoke is a terrible name for an imposing villain (turns out Snoke was probably apt because he was a joke of a villain, just like Kylo). Snoke is a name that always reminds me of a weasel like alien with a cocaine addiction.
It's one of those names that you think was tossed in the script as a joke and "we'll revisit later" and then it gets stuck.
Kinda like Cameron keeping the name "unobtainium" for the precious resource on Pandora in "Avatar."