Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 9 Mistakes Episode VIII Can't Afford To Repeat

7. Being A Bit Too "Self-Aware"

Yes, it's 2015, and yes, absolutely everything tends to have a meta-edge nowadays, but did Star Wars: The Force Awakens really need to be as self-aware as it was? Generally speaking, the movie managed to make it through to the finish without being overtly self-referential, but there are a few jarring moments when you feel like Joss Whedon has wandered onto set and edited a few of the lines. There's a little bit too much self-aware analysis of the situations from the characters, which isn't very Star Wars. The result is a movie that feels a little bit like it doesn't know how self-aware it should try to be, and instead kind of finds that awkward spot between "very" and "somewhat." Thing is, The Force Awakens didn't need to go down the meta route at all; it's not a Marvel movie, and it doesn't need to be sprinkled with flourishes of self-awareness. Rian Johnson's job as the director of Episode VIII is to keep this sort of thing down to the bare minimum, because it doesn't work. Though the comical asides in The Force Awakens are funny out of context, there's something jarring about them being utilised inside Star Wars; Johnson should attempt to steer the saga away from this meta-inclined territory.