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

Here's a thought experiment, identify the Star Wars movie from this description:

A member of a ragtag Rebellion hides information vital to their war against an oppressive Empire inside a droid before being captured. The droid is discovered by an idealistic desert-dwelling orphan who later meets up with an ageing veteran of the galaxy's last war, and discovers a connection to the Force. The veteran is killed shortly after by a Dark Force user they have a personal connection to, and the Empire's planet-killing super-weapon is destroyed in a daring X-Wing trench run.

This is a long-winded way of saying what plenty of other people have in the last two years: The Force Awakens relied far too much on A New Hope for its story beats. There are sequences that stand out because of their original narrative points and imagery like the escape from Jakku, and the duel on Starkiller Base, but they are pretty small when you consider that the film goes as far as pointing out to the audience that it's doing the Death Star for the third time.

By virtue of its lengthy history and sci-fi setting, Star Wars has almost limitless story possibilities, which is a blank canvas that should be exploited as much as possible when creating new instalments. If you want a new take on the old movies, you can just watch the Special Editions, but when you are making new movies set in that same universe and not a straight-up reboot, they actually need to be something new.

What The Last Jedi Should Do: Tell a new story.