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

2. Not Giving The Movie A Second To Breathe

The Force Awakens was the cinematic equivalent of a rollercoaster ride; for all of its two hour-plus runtime, it never lets up. The movie barrels forwards relentlessly, refusing to slow down or pause for a moment of proper reflection. It just keeps going and going, almost as if it were afraid to give audiences time to breathe or soak anything in. It works, of course, and there's nothing wrong with a movie that propels itself endlessly forwards, never looking back over its shoulder to contemplate what's happening. The only issue with this approach is that it leaves little time for those smaller moments that "make" these movies so great; the quiet, subtle touches that bring you back, time and time again. There's one of these moments towards the beginning of the film; Rey stares at an old lady on Jakku, and for a second you can see her wondering whether she's doomed to the same fate. It's a small, powerful and nicely-restrained piece of writing; J.J. Abrams doesn't spell it out for you - he trusts that you'll read the shot of the old lady correctly. As The Force Awakens picks up speed, however, these moments are lost. The worst crime that this approach results in means that Han Solo's death feels undervalued and brief. A similarly-paced Episode VIII would not be ideal. Rian Johnson's goal is to allow for the narrative pauses, those important sections of downtime, to give his movie an added weight; a blockbuster doesn't need to explode for the length of its entire runtime, after all.