This 100%. I personally find alot of issues with TLJ but can understand if people just enjoy it as a movie. But as the middle movie in a trilogy story, it is objectively terrible. There are characterizations that dont link with the previous movie (mainly the sudden shift from Kylo being conflicted with "too much light in him" with this guy is so evil I must kill him in his sleep.
The issue, as I see it, is less that it's the middle story of a trilogy, and more that it's a RADICAL tonal and focal shift away from what came before. And that's compounded by how the 3rd film whipsawed
back to the style/tone/approach of the first film, which (in my opinion) was a major mistake.
I could explain the Kylo Ren thing, but I don't really think there's a point. If it didn't work for you, it didn't work for you. We've all explained our positions ad infinitum here by now.
Anyway, my point is really that I think you could've done a whole series of films (not a trilogy) that were along the lines of what Rian did. And I think if Disney had anything approaching artistic stones, they could've continued in that vein after TLJ regardless of what TFA did. But I actually think they made the trilogy
worse by having JJ lead off, having RJ follow up, and then JJ finish it. The whole thing is really, really uneven, to the point where it looks almost like an argument between writer-directors played out on film. And JJ "won" the argument by virtue of it being a trilogy and him having drawn the odd-numbered films. I still think TLJ is a better-told, more interesting, more artistic story than either of JJ's entries are. But his entries are just meant to be roller-coaster rides that rely heavily on metatextual audience knowledge. They have fundamentally different "points" to them and to why you'd make them.
As rollercaster rides, JJ's films are terrific. As stories, they're a bit wobbly. RJ, on the other hand, is making, like, an anti-rollercoaster film. Or perhaps an anti-blockbuster blockbuster, which I think is a big part of why people bounced off of it
so hard.
It is kind of important given the fact that she was able to best a Skywalker (a the descendent of the one and thus implied to be incredibly powerful in the force) with no training. For TFA, just getting lucky and her getting owned in the second fight against an uninjured and focused Kylo would have made sense but that didnt happen either.
It's not, though. Or rather, her
parentage isn't. Not that specifically. Parentage as an explanation for "Why/how can she do all this?" is a weak, shorthand explanation for it. "Why's Rey so powerful? Because she's a Kenobiwalkpatiner." You could have also explained it with "She's been chosen by the Force," and it would've been just as valid an explanation.
More importantly, the answers to the "why/how" questions aren't really plot points. In other words, answering these questions isn't necessary to actually move the story along, and failing to answer them aren't "plot holes" because there's a difference between story and plot. Now, you can turn "And then Rey finds out who her parents were, which spurs her to action" into a plot point, but the actual identity of the parents is immaterial to the plot that we got.
Example: in TLJ, before we knew she was a Palpatine, the
actual identity of Rey's parents
does not matter. What matters is what Rey
thinks their identity is and then
what she does with that information and how it affects her. Rey "discovers" her parents were nobodies (in truth, Kylo just tells her what she already believes, and the cave shows her only herself). She doesn't get a quick, easy "You're the chosen one because of your parents" answer. If anything, her "answer" is that she's nobody....and faced with that information, she takes up the mantle of hero not because she's destined to by virtue of bloodline, but
because she can, and she knows it's necessary to do. The content of the information is not important because of its actual content. The content is important because of its impact on Rey. Ergo, the actual identity of her parents isn't a plot point; it's just a metatextual mystery that the audience has gotten invested in because the director of the first film lampshaded it for them to pay attention to.
As Psab said, Kennedy may believe that there are other factors but seems to want to push the "recasting" (which you can easily argue is not really her fault) as the main reason why Solo failed. There is a big emphasis on "recasting" as a lesson learnt in the article, Kennedy talking about not making a Luke series without Hamill, happy that McGregor and Christiansen are returning, mentioning Ford in Indy 5, etc.
I mean, I think she's right inasmuch as audiences aren't really willing to accept these characters changing actor identities. Some films you can do that, others you can't. I think at this point, the actors and the characters can't be separated, at least for these roles. They're iconic.
The actual interview (which appears in the other article, I think, in full) shows the context of the discussion. Basically, my point is that I don't know that Kennedy is necessarily trying to deflect from her own role, as much as that's just where the conversation went. It could've been softball questions for her, or just the bias of the interviewer. I can't imagine she doesn't know she s*** the bed with her directing decision and what that did to the film's profitability. That was a goddamn disaster, and the fact that Solo apparently made money on its budget is pretty impressive, in my opinion. I don't know that they doubled their expenses, but they must've increased them SIGNIFICANTLY by reshooting 70% of the film and rewriting it and hiring a second director who I'm sure did NOT come cheap.
Agreed but family is still a core part of Star Wars.
Star Wars is a family drama or has family has one of the central conflicts. Its like having Star Trek without Starfleet. It can work but its going to still be tricky.
The first Star Wars films have family drama as part of it, yeah. But family isn't really important to the films in the sense of bloodlines and such. Makeshift families are just as important. I'd say that those kinds of human relationships generally are important because without those, your characters are less interesting. You can still do a good film, tell a good story, but it helps to have those human connections to make the characters interesting and more relatable.
True and with streaming becoming more mainstream, tv is far better for long narrative. Lucas also foresaw this, hence why he proposed a tv show after the prequels that never got made.
For years now, I've been convinced that the format of film is really only good for telling circumscribed, specific stories, and I actually prefer the longer form storytelling of TV shows precisely because they can play out much more like novels. I still love film, but for storytelling, TV's where it's at for me. So I'm personally thrilled at the notion of Star Wars becoming a more long-form story. Hell, it goes back to the original DNA of Star Wars in the form of Flash Gordon serials.
I wouldnt say its incredibly smart. I dont mind the idea that Rey is a nobody since all jedi are nobodies (no descendants) and even nobody jedi can still become very powerful (Obi Wan isnt exactly strong with the force and his win over Anakin was due to his experience and really staying calm and not taking too many risks. Its been stated that Anakin not only has more force proficiency but is also a better fighter). However, there needs to be an explanation on why Rey is able to even stand up to, let alone beat, Kylo Ren twice despite her being a total newb and Kylo Ren having significant training as well as force potential.
I don't think there
needs to be, but it helps. It's something the audience fixates on, but it's not essential. As I said above, it could just be "The living Force has chosen her as its avatar. She's a vergence" and that would've been enough. Her parentage doesn't have to be the answer. I do think you kind of need some answer if only to swat away the critics, but the answer doesn't have to have anything to do with who her parents are. Anakin's parentage is never explained, either, and nobody seems to bat an eye at him being super ultra mega ooper powerful.
