Should Kathleen Kennedy be let go from the Star Wars megaproject?

[Karha of Honor]

A New Hope implies that Luke is already a pretty experienced pilot and marksman despite being stuck on Tatooine. It's fine if Rey is good at a lot of stuff, but her instantly being great at anything she tries with no training whatsoever is pretty noticeable. That's why so many theorized that Kylo Ren "unlocked" something when he was probing her mind in TFA. TLJ ended up doubling down by having an exclusive training session with the galaxy's greatest hero, sans any training or even any useful advice.

Rey's perfection doesn't just affect her though. I understand that there were a lot of extenuating factors that led to her defeating Kylo, and Finn going toe to toe with him is more egregious than what Rey did. But even so, it all served to delegitimize Kylo as a villain who should be taken seriously.

With all that said, the real problem isn't lack of logic or plot convenience that comes with her instant Force mastery. The big issue is the complete lack of internal/moral/spiritual struggle on Rey's part. Overcoming a personal flaw or finding new strength after failure is thematically essential for a satisfying story. Who beats who in a fight or who the best pilot might be is trivial in comparison. And that the real difference between Luke and Rey so far- Luke's struggle was moral rather than physical. Through two movies, Rey is the only one who has everything completely figured out, and I have never detected any sort of moral struggle.

In my opinion Kathleen Kennedy should have run a tighter ship and provided a clearer direction for the sequels. Whether she should get the boot for that, well it's kind of too late.

What do you mean it's too late?

[Yukaphile]

Because most Star Wars fans have had enough and are super pissed about it. You, my friend, are an indication of that. Look how badly Solo bombed. And I'm just so happy these new movies that were the direct cause to the termination of Legends are failing. As I suspected they would.

[TGLS]

What do you mean it's too late?

There's almost nothing to build the next sequel on. The anthology movies have been lackluster. Unless Disney intends on throwing good money after bad, we may very well see Star Wars take another two decadeish nap. And that's why some argue it's too late.

--

Honestly, I fail to see why so much of the blame is being heaped on Kennedy. It's the creative people who make the creative decisions, no? The only thing that I could see being done any better is insisting that the entire trilogy be at least outlined before hand so they know where it's going, and keeping the same creative people for the whole process.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

What do you mean it's too late?

The direction of the sequel trilogy is irrevocably set, with JJ and co. being right in the middle of shooting episode IX. To me it's the (lack of) direction of the sequel trilogy that is upsetting most fans, and that problem is already past us. Most (including myself) really liked Rogue One, and while I don't think Solo had to be made most who saw it didn't see it as horrible. It did bomb, but the mistakes they made in selling that movie are something that can be corrected.

So what is the point in getting rid of Kennedy? It's not like she has a poor track record as an executive producer in Hollywood, and a lack of big picture planning won't be such a big deal if they aren't planning on going down the Marvel route of 20+ connected movies anyway. For some fans it might feel like sweet revenge, but no Disney exec would think that way unless it changed the bottom line.

[Karha of Honor]

What do you mean it's too late?

There's almost nothing to build the next sequel on. The anthology movies have been lackluster. Unless Disney intends on throwing good money after bad, we may very well see Star Wars take another two decadeish nap. And that's why some argue it's too late.

--

Honestly, I fail to see why so much of the blame is being heaped on Kennedy. It's the creative people who make the creative decisions, no? The only thing that I could see being done any better is insisting that the entire trilogy be at least outlined before hand so they know where it's going, and keeping the same creative people for the whole process.

If she is not to be blamed why even have her? She is supposed wrangle creatives.

Because most Star Wars fans have had enough and are super pissed about it. You, my friend, are an indication of that. Look how badly Solo bombed. And I'm just so happy these new movies that were the direct cause to the termination of Legends are failing. As I suspected they would.

If they clearly change direction and are consitent i will forgive them.

What do you mean it's too late?

The direction of the sequel trilogy is irrevocably set, with JJ and co. being right in the middle of shooting episode IX. To me it's the (lack of) direction of the sequel trilogy that is upsetting most fans, and that problem is already past us. Most (including myself) really liked Rogue One, and while I don't think Solo had to be made most who saw it didn't see it as horrible. It did bomb, but the mistakes they made in selling that movie are something that can be corrected.

So what is the point in getting rid of Kennedy? It's not like she has a poor track record as an executive producer in Hollywood, and a lack of big picture planning won't be such a big deal if they aren't planning on going down the Marvel route of 20+ connected movies anyway. For some fans it might feel like sweet revenge, but no Disney exec would think that way unless it changed the bottom line.

She cannot execute 1 trilogy, forget about 1 movie each year interconnected + video games + comics +BOOKS.

Firing her is good for the fanbase. Her extension is to long.

[TGLS]

If she is not to be blamed why even have her? She is supposed wrangle creatives.

She's a producer. Her job is big picture stuff. Keeping things under budget, negotiating licensing, etc. Letting creative people do more or less as they please as long they don't blow the budget or what have you has been an element Hollywood has been fine with since the 70s.

[Karha of Honor]

If she is not to be blamed why even have her? She is supposed wrangle creatives.

She's a producer. Her job is big picture stuff. Keeping things under budget, negotiating licensing, etc. Letting creative people do more or less as they please as long they don't blow the budget or what have you has been an element Hollywood has been fine with since the 70s.

That is not how Disney did it recently.

[Admiral X]

His plan would have gone a lot smoother if he had disarmed a Luke a lot sooner and Luke not leapes out of the freezing chamber.

The entire point was to find out how strong Luke was. Remember toward the beginning of the fight when he manages to get Luke into the freezer and activates it? How he comments about how easy that was and how the Emperor might have been wrong about how strong he was? He's then impressed with how Luke was able to get out of that. From that point on, the whole point of that fight was to convince Luke he had no hope of beating him and that he should join him, and learn from him. It's literally right there in the dialog.

At this point he'd had a few hours with Obi-Wan and a weekend with Yoda.

It's a movie, so we really have no idea about the timing of things or how long they took. Remember the Falcon's FTL drive was broken, so it probably took them a while to get to Bespin.

[MrL1992]

The entire point was to find out how strong Luke was. Remember toward the beginning of the fight when he manages to get Luke into the freezer and activates it? How he comments about how easy that was and how the Emperor might have been wrong about how strong he was? He's then impressed with how Luke was able to get out of that. From that point on, the whole point of that fight was to convince Luke he had no hope of beating him and that he should join him, and learn from him. It's literally right there in the dialog.

Vader was also calling Luke's skill 'impressive' when we're only left to guess the amount of experience he's had in physical combat.

It's a movie, so we really have no idea about the timing of things or how long they took. Remember the Falcon's FTL drive was broken, so it probably took them a while to get to Bespin.

We're still given no reason to be'ieve it was any significant amount of time. Especially with the Falcon's jiurney.

[Yukaphile]

Just bring back Legends and I will be happy. I think it's obvious this new sequel trilogy has been a complete and utter flop. It didn't make them the huge bucks they were looking for. But then, those control freaks at Lucasfilm will never give up the power they've acquired in a tiny-penis attempt to make themselves feel better. It's awful.