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

Okay, no beating around the Tree Of Life here (you're welcome for those Holiday Special flashbacks by the way), the idea for an Original Trilogy sequel with less than thirty seconds of Luke Skywalker was really stupid, and the same goes for literally sticking R2-D2 in the corner under a dust sheet until the end. And before you start breaking out the Thermal Detonators, Mark Hamill kind of agrees with this one.

The point of this new trilogy is to pass the torch between generations, which needs the old characters to play a role since that strained metaphor is still being held by them. Fan-servicey cameos by Admiral Ackbar and Nien Nunb are nice, but they shouldn't get more focus than the Original Trilogy's main characters in a series of movies that follows up their stories.

And, moving away from the narrative for a moment, Episode VII's use of characters is the biggest missed opportunity in Star Wars history because it means Luke, Han, and Leia will never share any screen-time together again. Killing off Han Solo made this a now-or-never moment, and, for some reason, Lucasfilm went with never.

Elsewhere, how the new characters are used isn't really going to provoke as much fan outrage, but from a movie-making standpoint, it's a bit of an issue too. The Last Jedi is giving us that Finn vs Captain Phasma fight that really should have happened during Episode VII's Takodana battle, but other characters like General Hux need to be given a real role and a character that's more than just "shouty man in a leather trench-coat" to make them an effective part of the story.

What The Last Jedi Should Do: Take stock of the characters it has to work with, and use them effectively as part of the story instead of as fan-service.