Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 9 Episode VII Problems It Must Avoid

You know what, as stilted and dull as the Prequels' talks of trade negotiations and planets leaving the Republic were, they at least gave us a sense of where we were in the universe. Something that's a pretty big hole in The Force Awakens, since, when we get into the movie, everything is just there with no explanation.

While Luke and Kylo Ren's side of that thirty-year gap was held back for the sequels along with Rey's parentage, it looks like we're getting nothing for the universe at large. That we're back to a ragtag rebel movement fighting against a reborn Empire with a planet-killing super-weapon is supposed to be taken at face value.

And as divisive as critics Red Letter Media are (especially when it comes to Star Wars), one thing that they got right is that you can't put important backstory in the Expanded Universe. All of the stuff about where the New Republic, First Order, and Resistance came from isn't in The Force Awakens at all. It's in the books, comics, and video games, but a film shouldn't come with required reading just to understand it. Even having to skim-read a Wikipedia article is not on.

What The Last Jedi Should Do: Take some time to establish the state of the universe, and provide some backstory about this huge conflict that is now revving up.