The announcement that Disney purchased Lucasfilm from George Lucas in 2012 was met with a mixture of elation and dread by many Star Wars fans. The prequels had left many fans wanting a fresh start for the series, so long as it didn't involve George Lucas, but many also felt that Disney was the wrong company to do it.
The Star Wars films that have been released so far by Disney have also been met with mixed reactions by both casual and diehard fans of the series.
The Force Awakens was lauded as being a fresh new direction for the series by some and a shameless copy of the original trilogy that took no risks by others. Rogue One was seen as being a dark and exciting tale of the Rebel Alliance's history by some and as a pointless story that was propped up by fanservice by others.
The Last Jedi was easily the most divisive of the films, with many praising the new bold new additions to the story, while others felt that it was a betrayal to the name of Star Wars that didn't live up to the promise of The Force Awakens.
No matter what your opinion is of the new Star Wars films, there is no denying that there are problems with both the characters and the story. We are here today to look at the miscalculations and missteps made in the new galaxy that is far, far away.
Here are Twenty Problems With The New Star Wars Movies (That We All Choose To Ignore)
20 The GTA-Style Parking
We understand that neither Finn nor Rose are trained secret agents and their mission to find the Codebreaker was thrust upon them out of desperation, but it doesn't take James Bond to realize that you shouldn't draw undue attention to yourself when on a secret mission and you especially shouldn't break the law if you can help it.
Finn and Rose's lack of subtlety and tact almost destroyed the Resistance; they couldn't help but stand out while trying to perform a secretive mission.
Finn and Rose screw up their mission to Canto Blight almost instantly with an obvious parking violation, as they weren't willing to leave their craft in a more secret and secure place. They then proceed to act like belligerent tourists until they are caught and thrown in jail.
19 The Sleeping Imperial Soldiers
The final battle of The Last Jedi takes place on the planet Crait, where the Resistance had fled to an old Rebel base. The First Order attack the base with a group of Heavy Walkers, while the Resistance was forced to send out a force of ski speeders in an effort to destroy their Superlaser siege cannon.
Finn and Rose fail to destroy the siege cannon. He then carries Rose back to the base, across a vast stretch of land that took several minutes to travel while using a flying vehicle, while the First Order just looked on without firing their weapons and vaporizing them.
Finn and Rose are just lucky that the First Order is so courteous as to give them a fighting chance and letting them return home without incident.
18 The Problems Of A Chase In Space
The Resistance storyline in The Last Jedi is essentially a car chase in space. The First Order is pursuing the remnants of the Resistance fleet with the aid of a device that could track them through hyperspace, which results in an extended chase scene that lasts throughout the movie. It makes sense to do a chase scene in a movie where everyone is using cars and motorbikes, such as the Fast and the Furious or Mad Max films.
But doing the same thing in space, where ships can travel in any direction, causes multiple problems.
It's never explained why the First Order didn't call in more ships to cut off the Resistance fleet or attack them at different angles. We also don't know why the fleet didn't try to split up, in order for most of the ships to escape from the Supremacy.
17 What Became Of Luke Skywalker
We'll talk about the broader issues with making all of the characters in the original trilogy a failure when we reach #1, but special attention has to be given to the changes made to Luke Skywalker in order for him to fit the story of The Last Jedi, which meant changing his personality completely.
The idea that Luke would abandon his own nephew to the dark side, after going to such lengths to redeem his own father, might be the biggest insult to the original trilogy. Luke dies at the end of The Last Jedi but he also died the moment we learned the truth about how he abandoned his family, as he was no longer recognizable as the character from Return of the Jedi.
16 Surprised By The Force
It's strange how quickly thousands of years of history is quickly buried in the Star Wars universe. The Jedi Order and the Force fall into myth and legend after only a few decades of absence.
This could be explained away in the original trilogy by the Empire changing the history books in order to prevent people seeking out the Jedi, but it makes less sense in a galaxy owned by the Republic, where even a backwater world like Jakku should be aware of all of those famous wars among the stars from years earlier. It seems odd in the wake of Rey's vast technical knowledge and ability to speak multiple languages that she never picked up any history lessons from the people of Jakku.
15 The Lie Of Captain Phasma
By far the biggest waste of talent in the new Star Wars movies has to be Gwendoline Christie, who has proven how amazing she is as an actress in Game of Thrones and was reduced to little more than a walk-on role as Captain Phasma.
It's even more jarring when you see how much Gwendoline Christie was used in the marketing for the films.
But she barely had a few minutes of screen time across The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Why would they go to the expense of hiring such a talented actress and have nothing for her to do? Was it Captain Phasma's fate to just stand around and look vaguely like Boba Fett in the promotional material for the films?
14 Giving The Mission To A Stranger
The story of The Force Awakens involves several different factions searching for the location of Luke Skywalker. The map to the Jedi Temple on Achc-To is finally completed with the aid of BB-8 and R2-D2, which Rey then follows to Luke's location.
One thing that doesn't make sense about this plot point is the fact that Princess Leia never accompanied Rey. There is certainly enough high-ranking military personnel to lead the Resistance in her place (such as Admiral Ackbar and Vice Admiral Holdo) and you would think that she would want to see her brother after such a long time. Leia would also have a better chance at convincing Luke to return than some random girl that he had never met before.
13 The Mixed Up Messages
In The Last Jedi, the Resistance is forced to flee to a base on the planet Crait, with the First Order in pursuit. The Resistance has to send several pilots out in old ski speeders in order to destroy the Superlaser siege cannon, which has the power to blown open a hole in the base.
Finn is prepared to sacrifice it all in order to destroy the siege cannon, but he is stopped at the last moment by Rose.
She tells him that they have to fight for what they love and not what they hate. Rose's anti-sacrifice message would have meant a great deal more if the movie hadn't given us several badass sacrifice scenes, including Holdo crashing into the Supremacy and Rose's own sister ensuring that the Fulminatrix was destroyed at the cost of her own life.
12 They Stole Spock's Psychic Telescope
There is a scene in the Star Trek reboot movie where Spock witnesses the destruction of the planet Vulcan while on Delta Vega. The filmmakers have suggested that Spock wasn't actually seeing the planet being destroyed (as the distance/scale didn't make sense) and that it was just a manifestation of his mental abilities.
A similar situation happens in The Force Awakens when the Starkiller base destroys several Republic worlds in the Hosnian system, which is seen by people on the planet Takodana. This has been given the hand-wave solution of "sub-hyperspace rip side effect" which is a series of words made up to cover for the fact that it was just a cool visual that they never expected to make sense.
11 The False Support
There has been a trend with recent blockbusters where people associated with the production would hint that an LGBTQ character would appear in the film... only for none to materialize. We have seen this with the likes of Ghostbusters and the Marvel movies, which promised representation and then never followed through.
A lot of fans thought that certain scenes in The Force Awakens hinted at a romantic attraction between Finn and Poe. This has been helped by the actors supporting these theories. Despite the support from John Boyega and Oscar Isaacs, there hasn't been any LGBTQ representation within the Star Wars films. Kathleen Kennedy has spoken about the possibility of adding gay characters to the movies, but so far, they have only been words and not deeds.
10 Wasting The Raid Actors
The Raid and The Raid 2: Berandal are two of the best action/martial arts movies ever made. You owe it to yourself to watch these two incredible films if you haven't already. It seems that J.J. Abrams agrees with this opinion, as he was able to secure roles for three of the actors from The Raid films; Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, and Cecep Arif Rahman, who played members of the Kanjiklub crime organization.
It was nice of J.J. Abrams to help find these underappreciated actors a role in such a big film.
Though you have to wonder why he didn't have them perform any martial arts? Why hire three of the best martial artists in cinema history to stand around? It would be like casting Bruce Lee in My Dinner With Andre.
9 The Problem Of Hyperspeed Ramming
By far the coolest scene in The Last Jedi was when Vice Admiral Holdo sacrificed her life by crashing the Raddus into the Supremacy while engaging the hyperdrive, which tore a massive hole through the Imperial ship. While the scene of Holdo's sacrifice was impressive, it opened up several questions about all of the previous space battles we had seen. The sheer destructive force of Holdo's move was so impressive that you can't help but wonder why this maneuver isn't done in all space battles. You would think that old, out of date ships would be perfect for this kind of sacrificial attack.
If flying one ship into another while engaging the hyperdrive is such a damaging technique, then why haven't we see it done before? What would have happened if someone had performed this trick on the Death Star?
8 No Send-Off For Admiral Ackbar
Admiral Ackbar was the breakout star of Return of the Jedi. The puppetry that went into creating Ackbar's head is still impressive to this day and "It's a trap" is one of the most quoted lines in the film. Admiral Ackbar came out of retirement in The Force Awakens for a brief cameo, which suggested to fans that he may have a larger role to play in the later films, as there was a need for a skilled battlefield commander against the First Order.
They were wrong. Admiral Ackbar was ended during the scene when Princess Leia was blown out into space. His passing was not commented on by the other characters and no sort of memorial was held for this hero of the Rebel Alliance.
7 Kylo Ren Is The Jobber Of The Franchise
With Snoke now out of the picture, it's fair to say that Kylo Ren is being built-up as the main antagonist of the new Star Wars movie trilogy.
It's been hard to take Kylo Ren seriously as a villain, considering the times he has been made to look the fool by his enemies.
The man who was supposed to be the new Darth Vader had his own Force powers turned back on him by Rey during their interrogation, before going on to lose the final battle of the movie. They gave him a good reason to lose the final duel (due to his injuries) but he should never have lost in the first place, as they are supposed to be building him up as a threat. Kylo Ren would end The Last Jedi by being fooled by Luke Skywalker's illusion, which gave the Resistance time to escape. At this point, it seems that Kylo Ren is only good at ending defenseless old men.
6 The Police Squad Ending
Those who went to see The Force Awakens in order to catch a glimpse of the older Luke Skywalker had to wait until the end of the movie, as he only appears during the last few moments of the film. Rey finally tracks down Luke and offers the lightsaber to him, while he silently stared at her...
It seems as if the filmmakers regarded this scene as having a lot more weight than it did. This must be the reason why they decided to have Luke and Rey staring in awkward silence for over a minute. The unnecessary aerial shot also made the ending of The Force Awakens resemble an episode of Police Squad, where the actors just freeze while the credits play.
5 Hiding In The Most Obvious Place
The original Jedi Order was birthed on the planet Ahch-To, which is where Luke Skywalker has been hiding for all of the years since the destruction of his own Jedi Order. It was here that Luke decided to cut himself off from the Force and live out his final days in exile.
The question that remains is why would Luke choose to exile himself in a Jedi Temple?
If he truly didn't want to be found, then why didn't he just choose some random planet with no connection to the Jedi? For all he knew, the remaining Sith could have learned the location of Ahch-To through some means he wasn't aware of and tracked him down, as they would have wanted to plunder the Temple regardless.
4 The Lack Of A Focused Creative Direction
There seems to be a division between the people who really loved The Force Awakens and those who loved The Last Jedi. This is because The Force Awakens tried hard to evoke the magic of the original trilogy, while The Last Jedi ended up throwing out certain plot plots from The Force Awakens in order to tell a new story that could take the series in different directions.
The reason for this radical shift is due to the fact that two different directors were allowed to tell their own story, yet somehow had to make their differing ideas gel together. It's for this reason that you see people angry about Snoke having no backstory and there being no revelation about Rey's parents. They have every right to be angry, as The Force Awakens built these story elements up as big mysteries and they were dropped as if they didn't matter.
3 The Waste Of Chewbacca & The Droids
There was speculation during the lead up to The Last Jedi that Chewbacca would die during the events of the film. Anyone who thought this was out of their minds, as Chewbacca is one of the characters from the original trilogy who can keep reappearing in the other films.
The people at Disney just need to keep putting tall guys in the suit until the end of time.
It's odd that Chewbacca's role has been diminished in the new films, most notably in The Last Jedi. It seems as if he only shows up just to stand around. The same is true of C3-P0 and R2-D2, who also haven't had major roles in the new films, even though they too can keep showing up with different people inside the costumes.
2 Rogue One Didn't Need To Play It So Safe
The upcoming Disney business plan for Star Wars involves numerous new mainline entries to the series that are broken up with spinoff films. Rogue One was the first of these to be released and it made the baffling choice to focus on the events immediately leading up to A New Hope.
The beauty of the Star Wars spinoff films is that they don't have to be beholden to the long-term considerations of the mainline films. They can tell any kind of story that they want, in a universe that is filled with possibilities... and they decided to just piggyback off of A New Hope. Rogue One wasn't a terrible movie by any standard, but it just never lived up to its potential to tell an original story and played it far too safe.
1 Everyone Failed In Order To Reset The Conflict
The biggest problem with the latest Star Wars movies is how the stories of the original trilogy had to be undone in order to reset the conflict, just so that the new films could be about a rebellion opposing an empire. What rankles most fans is the fact that Republic so utterly failed in their mission that they allowed the First Order to gain the upper hand and almost decimate them within the space of a few days.
In order for to have the Empire return, it had to be established that Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker were total screwups in order for a new threat to appear. To many fans, this hurts most of all. The happy ending of Return of the Jedi is now tainted by the fact that it wasn't a happy ending at all.