ST Force Awakens Major Mistakes and Why we forgive them.

These are mistakes/issues/disappointments that I had with The Force Awakens.
I read on the internet that Mark Hamill regretted that Han, Leia and Luke were never on the screen again altogether and I agree it was, sadly, a missed opportunity as it would have been great to them all reunite for one last mission to save the galaxy, then they could have moved forward with the other characters in the subsequent two movies.
In all the Legacy books that were published after Return of the Jedi, the ones with Leia, Luke and Han, they continued being heros as there was always another threat, while in the Force Awakens they have them being like everyone else or as much like everyone else that those three could possibly be, and I think it was an adjustment for a lot of the fans.
25 to 30 years after Return of Jedi Luke is still the only Jedi. Its only the crawl and I am already disappointed. This is actually my biggest disappointment for the sequel trilogy. I was hoping for more Jedi, bigger light saber battles (more participants), new force abilities, we got some of that with Rey and Ben but with more Jedi it could have better.
Finn and Poe steal a two seater TIE fighter and don't have any oxygen masks and there is no explanation. TIE fighters are know to have only one pilot, no oxygen in the cockpit and no hyperdrives. Also just a few minutes later we see two TIE pilots in traditional helmets are chasing the Falcon. They should of had an explanation or at least stole some flight suits. OK this isn't really major, but I just found it annoying.
Han Solo lost the Millennium Falcon, this is sacrilegious.
Star Killer base is another Death Star, just bigger, which makes this too much like the original Star Wars movie (although in hindsight it is probably the first clue that Palpatine has returned).
The First Order fires its weapon and destroyed several planets, killing billions and billions of beings, probably causing the greatest disturbance in the force ever, and there is no Luke Skywalker. He doesn't show up to investigate, to help fight probably the greatest threat the Galaxy has ever known.
The Resistance is closed to being wiped out, Luke Skywalker, no where to be found.
How is Rey teaching herself how to use the force? This really should have been explained. The best theory I read about was that she acquired the knowledge while going through Kylo Ren's mind while he was interrogating her, maybe their dyad bond helped her absorb the knowledge, but I also wonder if Palpatine was whispering her instructions in her mind.
In the Empire Strikes Back, Luke risks everything to save Han and Leia, but Han is killed on Star Killer base and where is Luke Skywalker?
Han Solo dies, he was my favorite character, so I was sad to see him go.
When they get back to base after destroying Star Killer base Chewie blows by Leia, doesn't even acknowledge her after Han was killed.
Luke is Leia's brother, he is important to help the Resistance, why does Leia only send Rey, who Luke hardly knows to get him to come help. Why doesn't Leia just take the Resistance to get Luke? The 1st Order is on their way to destroy them, they don't know where Luke is, sounds like a good place to hide out.
Luke not being in 99% of the movie. The old Luke that we knew and loved should have showed up at Maz's Castle, to try and help save the galaxy. I listed these other instances of Luke being absent to show that Rian Johnson doesn't deserve all the blame for his characterization of Luke, a lot of it was already set out for him the Force Awakens.
Showing Luke in the last scene of the movie and ending on that cliff hanger. Although basically the whole movie was about finding Luke Skywalker as everything major that happens in the movie revolves around finding him, on one level it makes sense to end the movie with Rey finding him. The problem with this ending is that it really demands that next movie pick up were this one leaves off. This locks the second movie time frame and does not allow the second film to develop some of the secondary characters and mysteries of the Force Awakens such as Phasma, the knights of Ren and how Maz ended up with Luke's light saber. I think if more time had passed in the Star Wars galaxy between movies it would have been easier to set up a story that goes more in depth to some of the mysteries put forth in the Force Awakens.
So how does JJ Abrams avoid all the criticism for The Force Awakens? Two words:
Han Solo
Although I am biased as Han has become my favorite character over time, he, Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon are one of the best things about Star Wars, and Abrams' does a great job with Han's story (except the part about him loosing the Falcon). Even though I was not happy that Han died, our once greedy nurf hurder, died by an act of love trying to save his son from darkness, which is probably the best way any character can be killed off, and he was instrumental in destroying Star Killer base, so much so that it wouldn't have happened without him and he saved the galaxy.
We as fans decided that it was a decent way for him to go. So it wasn't what we hoped for, but Han's story was good enough that we are OK with movie. That was how he avoided a lot of the criticism.
The last mistake the Force Awakens made that I will talk about here is that Abrams' made Han's mission too important. If Han just died trying to save Ben from the Dark side, then Luke could have been off on another mission doing something more important and wouldn't have been much help to Han anyway since he was there when Ben turned to the dark side in the first place. But the events of the Force Awakens were too important, the future of galaxy hung in the balance, for Luke Skywalker to not be there. Although the galactic importance of the events in the Force Awakens brought greater significance to Han being the hero, it made Luke look really, really bad. I understood what they were doing in that one sequel movie would devoted to Han, one to Leia and one Luke, and each one would die at the end of each of their films, but what they miscalculated was back lash of having the reality of Luke's absence from the Force Awakens on the heals of the killing off of Han Solo was too much for many fans to take.

 

The original mistake was a mandated 2015 release.

 

I couldn't DISAGREE more.

Han's death was horrible and stupid and Abrams did a horrendous job with Han. He stripped all of his character growth back to ANH and turned him into a crappy smuggler and a terrible husband who abandoned Leia. He wasn't even looking for Luke. He didn't save the galaxy - quite honestly, I don't know who did because nobody cared in TLJ about anything that happened in TFA. He dies so that his son will spend another movie and a half murdering more people and then half heartedly "redeem" himself. That JJ and Larry Kasdan can say that Han is their favorite character is just wrong. He died for nothing, alone, and Leia and Luke barely mourn him. He doesn't appear in TROS except in some "dream" sequence so his son can forgive himself. At the end, he doesn't appear with Luke and Leia. I guess he's dead in Corellian Hell and they don't care, not that they seem to anyway.

He doesn't and he shouldn't. I'm sorry, no.

I don't forgive ONE THING in TFA. I'm tired of it being given a pass - "oh, it was fun, oh, it set up so much and RJ did..." no. It set up three decent characters at the beginning and by the end, Rey, Finn and Poe were all pretty much a mess. They were completely shredded by TLJ.

Everything done with Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie and the droids was a misfire. Everything. All they did in the OT was torn down. They were all estranged. They weren't reunited and JJ took no flack over it, in fact, no one even seemed to care. I cannot to this day think of another movie cast that was not reunited when they were all hired together. Here is a cast that is LEGENDARY for the friendship portrayed on screen and JJ et al get a pass for destroying any chance of seeing them together again. That is absolutely unforgiveable. That it is forgiven will never, ever cease to make me angry.

There's no world building. The dialogue is atrocious and modern. The cinematography is mud. The science is laughable. It's not even a decent ripoff of ANH. Han and Leia are broken up and their relationship is regressed to right after the trash compactor. They're dressed awfully and look awful.

Abrams gave Luke, Han and Leia ONE CHILD who was a dark lord and destroyed everything they did and murdered Han and basically was the cause of death of both Luke and Leia and that's a good thing?

I'm sorry, I don't get it and I never will.

 

I didn't like TFA that much, not long after I saw it.

 

The biggest mistake was hiring JJ. Mystery box BS that revealed an empty box as is always the case with JJ. TFA was all set up without any commitment and that's a bad set up. Moreover, he has no sense of what needs to be mysterious and what needs to be revealed. For example, Rey Palpatine. There was no reason not to reveal it in TFA. The mystery wouldn't be who she was but how. You could reveal that her grandfather was Sheev but not the full story (whether it was mother or father who was related, what happened to them, etc).

And that's an unforgivable mistake.

 

There was if that wasn't the plan....

 

It’s okay.

 

TFA is the worst sequel (IMHO), and there are several reasons for this... but primarily because its world building, the presentation of characters and situations, are (IMHO) so vanilla and derivative that it almost makes it impossible for any filmmaker to progress the paper thin concepts and ideas. TFA actually shrinks a galaxy far, far away. Ultimately there is no concept contained within TFA, no story, that's worthy of further exploration. Well, there was something worthy of further exploration, in my opinion, and that was Finn. The notion of a stormtrooper becoming a 'good guy' could have been utilised much more successfully. Hell, I would have settled for Finn being a double agent, and the redemption story being his and not Kylo Ren's. At least that would have been a new angle.

Ultimately, I believe Disney rushed TFA to market way too quickly. The result was that Lucasfilm couldn't devise a strategy for more Star Wars films, let alone a suitable/credible sequel to ROTJ. They favoured a return on investment over longevity... and I think that damaged the ST as a whole. Saying that, I hope they have learnt a lesson from the ST (they seem to have), and as a consequence invest more time in developing stories and characters rather than the quickest route to cash.

 

Yeah, I did not like TFA at all and I don't forgive it. What should have the respectable Episode VII building off George Lucas's hexology, ended up being one big middle finger to PT fans and fans who were hoping for new adventures featuring the OT3. Instead we got a boring galactic conflict between similar factions we had seen before and a plot that was heavily ripping on a much better movie. Not to mention the overusage of one-liners to make up for the lack of any major character development, and it was at best, a dumb, forgettable, yet entertaining, blockbuster that you can turn off your brain to, and at worst, a failure to build off from ROTJ as a sequel and ROTS as a spiritual successor.

Add in the heavy, non-subtle anti-PT marketing, and I was soured on the film before it even came out.

 

TFA was simply a copy of all the themes and story arc of A New Hope , there was nothing original and why they never just adapted George Lucas's treatment for EP7 is beyond me and also the fact that the big 3 were never had a scene together is totally unforgivable.

TFA is the worst of the ST and I wish George Lucas had not sold to Disney until he completed his ST.

 

Hiring JJ Abrams was a pretty huge mistake. Then they managed to do it again. Jokes on them at that point.

 

I have never given any of what I had deemed as mistakes in TFA or any other Star Wars film, a pass.

 

TFA's biggest failing was how it completely reset the galaxy back to a failing government body, a rising Empire, and a small Rebellion fighting it

Not helped by skipping an entire trilogy's worth of content

- end of the empire and the creation of a new republic
- rise of the first order
- birth and immediate death of a new Jedi order (which is probably the biggest slap in the face to long-time fans)

 

I believe most of the ST’s shortcomings stem from JJ Abrams’ aggressively superficial style of storytelling. He set the stage, and it wasn’t a convincing one.