And yet you've posted answer upon answer on this page trying to blame Rian Johnson for JJ Abrams faults? Perhaps thinking about who Snoke and Rey were would have been a better use of your time.
My bank account disagrees with that, but it's true that I don't get paid for writing here. The reason I'm still talking about this here is not only because the movie was abysmal, but also due to the reasons it ended up so. It seems like a classic case of management errors stacked on top of each other, which could provide a bit more discussion about this. Additionally, the whole thing started from people asking why others found the movie bad, and I've given my answers to that. I hoped to close the discussion from my part with the last response, but some relevant discussion popped up.
Abrams wasn't necessarily tasked with writing the whole backstory. These things are written in the commission contracts, and Abrams provided what was asked from him. Mark Hamill himself has stated that there was no story arc available for the movies, including the first one. That's Disney. Then we know Kennedy has fired a director or two from their positions. Wasn't Trevorrow already asked to direct the TFA, that's what I'm getting from Hamill's interviews? Kennedy sacked him due to "creative differences". Regardless, he was dropped, and the ball was given to Abrams. Abrams wouldn't have time to write the story arc if he had to write the plot for the movie in a short notice, in addition for taking care of other production things. Abrams provided the hooks with purpose and gave a rather interesting starting point for Episode 8.
Johnson not only managed to squash it down, but instead of ignoring the stupid parts of the hooks, he ignored parts of the original trilogy instead, with rather predictable results. Now what will likely happen is that Johnson gets all the blame, and will likely be the fall guy if things didn't go according to Disney's plan. And I have to say rightly so, if anything told in the former movies is drastically revised, there better be a damn good reason for it. Otherwise, why would I want to invest any time in the series if the stuff just keeps on changing?
Unsolvable in that there is no satisfying answer to them. I challenge you to come up with an answer for who Snoke is that would have added anything to film number 8. As for your continued claims of lack of character development, chanting it like a mantra does not make it true. The problem that people are complaining about in the film is that Luke's character developed in a direction they didn't like. If you're going to keep claiming that Luke's character didn't develop at all, then you're only proving that you have no idea what the words character development mean.
Snoke's history was not essential for Episode 8, a short part of it could have worked in 9. However, the First Order was essential for the Eight Installment. So is it a remnant of the Empire or not? How on Earth does it have such a vast fleet that rivals the Empire? How was Snoke able to convince anyone to join his cause, and more so, what does Snoke even represent? If he isn't a Sith, what does he want to do with the galaxy? Where do the First Order's resources come from? What is the balance of power between the Republic and the First Order? None of that is available anywhere. Because of it, there's no telling what was at stake in the battles of Episode 8. La Resistance started running, and they are still running with less people around at the end of the movie. All that changed is apparently "now there's hope", while galaxy gave them a massive middle finger.
Regarding character development, The E asked more about it.
Let's see, what was the character development for the main cast.
Rey: learns that being a Jedi doesn't mean being a Jedi fangirl. That she has to make her own decisions and her own name and that she can't rely on Luke or her parents to make her important in the grand scheme of things.
Finn: has to come to terms with being a part of the resistance and that looking out for yourself and your loved ones exclusively is not enough, not in the face of something like the Empire.
Poe: learns that heroics have their place, but not when they lead to pyrrhic victories.
That's just the heroes, of course. Kylo Ren also has his own arc, and in every case, these characters make decisions over the course of the film that they wouldn't have been able to make at the film's start.
I am curious now, though. What do you think character development is, Mika?
The issue with Rey having the character development of your interpretation is that it doesn't make sense to me. She was already a strong willed urchin in Episode 7, and having been basically a slave until her adulthood makes this development quite disconnected from the backstory shown in TFA. She would have already known the difference in the sense that she decides for herself. The interesting thing about her would have been the moral backbone; having lived under extreme poverty, she still has a very strong moral backbone whereas many people around her didn't. She certainly would have been tempted with quick cash-ins and other illegality to improve her position, but she has refused to do that. How does she see the world in this way even after such a rough childhood?
Finn's development on him coming to terms with La Resistance works somewhat, but still, he is a deserter, and no army employs a deserter in their ranks by default. Very few people in La Resistance knew who he was even if he was injured at the end of Ep 7, and was in coma for the beginning of Eight. More could have been done by handling the deserter part to flesh out the character in his new surroundings better. Why would he attempt to sacrifice himself after knowing the people from La Resistance for a couple of days??? The rest about stopping the First Order doesn't work, as thinking about that would be pretty much essential already as a storm trooper on the First Order side. Unless you mean storm troopers cannot think due to some chip installed in them, but even then Finn deserted.
The point about Poe's heroics is problematic in two fronts: it gets mudded by the rest of the film, and secondly, person with his temperament would never have been any general, possibly not even a pilot. The problem with the wanton heroics point is that Holdo sacrifices herself and manages to create a massive disruption in the First Order. Then we get Finn about to wreck the cannon which could have taken out the ground forces of the First Order in Krayt. Finally, Luke gets himself killed to save the few remnants of Le Resistance. Furthermore, his character's actions do not lead to, let's just say,
feedback from the mechanics and friends of the bomber squad he managed to wipe out. Making the point this way would have been way more effective. What do we have now? A decisive battle where the Resistance soliders MUST remain at their stations given the information they had; it's do or die situation for them and the Resistance.
Only at the moment when Luke arrives becomes the retreat justified as the opposition is distracted. However, Poe makes the decision before that, but to accomplish what exactly? Retreat option for the fleet was certainly there in the beginning of the episode, but in Krayt, it's really not an option. That's not learning to assess the situation, it's just again a bad decision from his part. Of course, had he wanted to save the people from his perspective certain death with AT-ATs to fight in better positions, then it somewhat works. Unfortunately, the speeders were still likely the best bet they had, nothing in the base could otherwise touch the AT-ATs so they would have been overrun anyways.
Kylo Ren, [sigh]. He is one of the movie "baddies" you'd really like to smack down and tell him to grow a pair of balls. He's probably going to cry like a baby in Episode 9 because Rey makes him see
the error of his ways. Luckily, I don't need to see it.
Protip: Don't do this if you as a CEO don't want to get labelled for pushing agendas. Makes one wonder about the target group analysis of the marketing department...
