Which Creative Decision Hurt the Star Wars Disney Sequel Trilogy the Most?

[Winter]

"Somehow, Palpatine has returned"

I put this alongside removing the Mon Mothma scenes from Revenge of the Sith.

"Who would want to see the formation of the Rebel Alliance" is like, "Who would be interested in the resurrection of the Dark Lord?"

In all fairness, the scenes where the Rebellion is truly beginning... is really boring and don't really add anything in the movie itself and Lucas had to cut something in order to keep the pace of the film moving. The movie is not about the Rise of the Rebellion it's about The Fall of Anakin and while it does give Padme more to do removing it does not hurt the film itself.

Palpatine's return the other hand hurts not only this film but the series as a whole. I didn't care for him coming back in the comics and I don't like it here because both miss the point of Palpatine's character. Palpatine is there to be someone who pulls Anakin to the Dark Side and Anakin's is redeemed when he breaks away from the one who brought out the worse in him.

Bringing him back never works and giving him the same role that he had in the first two trilogies just proves my point from before. These film's have few ideas of their own and the few they do have are underutilized.

So I do understand why cutting the beginning of the Rebellion in Revenge of the Sith is annoying but in the end it didn't but not needed especially when we actually do get it with Bail Organa working with Obi-Wan and Yoda throughout the second and third act.

[McAvoy]

"Somehow, Palpatine has returned"

I am going with this.

Or letting Johnson run wild with no supervision for The Last Jedi.

If they got Johnson to write the second movie that furthered the first movie's storyline, then we wouldn't have to deal with Palpatine oking back.

[MightyDavidson]

"Somehow, Palpatine has returned"

I am going with this.

Or letting Johnson run wild with no supervision for The Last Jedi.

If they got Johnson to write the second movie that furthered the first movie's storyline, then we wouldn't have to deal with Palpatine oking back.

Not sure that's the case. Abrams was going to ape the original trilogy regardless, that's why the first and third movies play like repainted versions of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.

[McAvoy]

"Somehow, Palpatine has returned"

I am going with this.

Or letting Johnson run wild with no supervision for The Last Jedi.

If they got Johnson to write the second movie that furthered the first movie's storyline, then we wouldn't have to deal with Palpatine oking back.

Not sure that's the case. Abrams was going to ape the original trilogy regardless, that's why the first and third movies play like repainted versions of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.

Probably. Always had that feeling that Luke was going to be Yoda. But I doubt he would have been portrayed as a old cranky old man.

Narratively there is so many different ways you could do if you want to drop the OT ripoff idea.

But to bring it more simple, Luke and the OT cast would have at least been together for the first movie before the ritual killing them off began.

[phantom000]

By contrast scenes in the Disney Sequel Trilogy that call back to the Original Trilogy are done in almost seemingly just to have a call back. They do little to nothing new and are just the same scene just with altered dialogue.

For example, both TLJ and Empire have a scene where the hero learns the truth about their past in a scene with the film's main villain. Said villain offers them the chance to rule that galaxy and talks about how they see greatness in them and to join them in getting ride of the old regime and creating a new one only for the hero to reject this offer. They escape and rejoin their friends as they narrowly escape the evil empire.

Another scene, a Jedi Knight who is (more or less) the last Jedi goes to confront his former student who fell to the Dark Side with the two engaging in a Ligthsaber duel and in doing so the Jedi Knight gives up his life to give our heroes a chance to escape. But with the heroes is someone who will learn the ways of the Force and bring forth a new Jedi order.

And finally, Luke confronts the Darkness within himself while questioning the value of the Jedi way and chooses to embrace the true meaning of the Jedi by rejecting a Lightsaber duel.

What is sad is that Solo A Star Wars Story does the same thing but makes it feel a lot more natural because the call backs serve the story. Like when Han gets his blaster which is given to him to show he has been accepted into the group but also how he has transitioned from one phase of his life to another. And the card game with Lando was just brilliant! It's not a master class in story telling but it is a solid example of how to work the call backs into the story.

But getting back to the main point, I think a lot of problems with the DST comes from the changing creative staff behind all three films. Say what you will about the prequels, at least they fit together as an epic story because Lucas had a clear idea of what he wanted from beginning to end, not so with Disney's sequels.

[Nealithi]

By contrast scenes in the Disney Sequel Trilogy that call back to the Original Trilogy are done in almost seemingly just to have a call back. They do little to nothing new and are just the same scene just with altered dialogue.

For example, both TLJ and Empire have a scene where the hero learns the truth about their past in a scene with the film's main villain. Said villain offers them the chance to rule that galaxy and talks about how they see greatness in them and to join them in getting ride of the old regime and creating a new one only for the hero to reject this offer. They escape and rejoin their friends as they narrowly escape the evil empire.

Another scene, a Jedi Knight who is (more or less) the last Jedi goes to confront his former student who fell to the Dark Side with the two engaging in a Ligthsaber duel and in doing so the Jedi Knight gives up his life to give our heroes a chance to escape. But with the heroes is someone who will learn the ways of the Force and bring forth a new Jedi order.

And finally, Luke confronts the Darkness within himself while questioning the value of the Jedi way and chooses to embrace the true meaning of the Jedi by rejecting a Lightsaber duel.

What is sad is that Solo A Star Wars Story does the same thing but makes it feel a lot more natural because the call backs serve the story. Like when Han gets his blaster which is given to him to show he has been accepted into the group but also how he has transitioned from one phase of his life to another. And the card game with Lando was just brilliant! It's not a master class in story telling but it is a solid example of how to work the call backs into the story.

But getting back to the main point, I think a lot of problems with the DST comes from the changing creative staff behind all three films. Say what you will about the prequels, at least they fit together as an epic story because Lucas had a clear idea of what he wanted from beginning to end, not so with Disney's sequels.

I am not so certain he knew what he wanted from beginning to end. I think he had a general idea and filled in the details.
The original series was not written as a trilogy. It was still written as three contained movies. But they respected the parts previously done.

Creatively I think those making the creative decisions needed to not be in those positions. I saw a brief recording once of Kathleen Kennedy at a meeting with Disney reps deciding on the future of Star Wars Disney. "Hold onto the past" or "Forge a new future". This might have been about the theme park not the movies. But, they didn't do that. We got Deathstar mk III with the new trench run. Then in the next movie we got I can't believe it isn't Hoth. Having the film makers doing knockoffs to original Star Wars instead of their own original work. They didn't commit to their own concept. And they made the same kind of mistake down previously in Star Trek. Give the fans a glorious exit for past heroes, don't do it lackluster. It just pisses them off and it isn't art.

I am playing Outlaws, I have watched Rogue One. It is up there in good films for me. I think they should have creatively gone in a new direction and stuck with it. No Millennium Falcon, Old heroes either in the past or just cameos. New heroes and hero ships. A new story in the used future that is Star Wars, and they would have done better. Less parallels drawn.
And yes I so wanted them to make Finn a Jedi. Stormtrooper deserter who learns there is something he wants to be part of and fight for? Learn to be more than to be a number and reach for greatness?
That sounds like a real new hope to me.

[hammerofglass]

Here's one, and it's more a missed opportunity: the first movie had some of the best x-wing scenes in the franchise. Just beautifully scripted and animated. The ship fight scenes in the other two are some of the worst. They're just jumbled nonsense, ignore everything about how space combat works in the setting, and not even pretty to look at. There's one cool shot of a y-wing taking out a Sith Destroyer in the third movie, that's it.

That final battle with ships from every faction across the franchise making a final stand against the Sith is so cool in concept and they bungled it so badly.

[Riedquat]

Here's one, and it's more a missed opportunity: the first movie had some of the best x-wing scenes in the franchise.

Bit hard to get completely in to it when they're flying around a place you've known well since you were a kid though (although I'd have been completely over the top over-excited seeing it there if I was still a kid - now I'm more interested in spotting bits of 18th century lead mines in the background).

[Nobody700]

Here's one, and it's more a missed opportunity: the first movie had some of the best x-wing scenes in the franchise. Just beautifully scripted and animated. The ship fight scenes in the other two are some of the worst. They're just jumbled nonsense, ignore everything about how space combat works in the setting, and not even pretty to look at. There's one cool shot of a y-wing taking out a Sith Destroyer in the third movie, that's it.

That final battle with ships from every faction across the franchise making a final stand against the Sith is so cool in concept and they bungled it so badly.

As winter pointed out before, the bombers in the second film are utterly stupid, we NEVER seen anything like this, and don't make any sense at all.

But uh... the plot demanded we do something that dumb.

[stryke]

The bombers are dumb but for me the film annoyed me even before that with Poe parking his fighter right in front of a capital ship to tell your momma jokes. Yes, they point that they should be launching fighters of their own, but that just makes them look even more incompetent and making your bad guy look that incompetent that early really undercuts any threat they might have for the rest of the film.