True, the kind of cliffhangers Empire had were "what's going to happen" type rather than "what happened, will it be explained".
Exactly. There was no "But what did it all mean?!" at the end of Empire. It was just "Whoa...how are they gonna get Han back? And holy crap! What's it mean for Luke that VADER is his dad?!?!"
Mmmm, this is where I kinda disagree. Rey is the protagonist therefore the viewer's vessel. Of course, there are things obvious to people, but not to her. Snoke for instance, most people around in the story know who he is or at least partly, but she doesn't have a clue who or what he is or his importance. Same applies for why Luke disappeared. Good storytelling is when the viewer learns things through the protagonist learning things. Much like Ben had to explain who Darth Vader and what the Force was to Luke in ANH.
But even with that, TFA left open for more than the mystery box cliffhangers:
- How will Luke react to Rey showing up on his lawn with his lightsaber
Poorly.
- What will happen to Finn who's been gravely injured (not explored)
He healed up?
- New Republic capital planets destroyed, what will happen now with regards to government (opening crawl sorted it)
Don't remember it, but I'll take your word for it. To be fair, Star Wars has never really delved into the larger scale political impacts of the actions on screen. Like, we don't hear about how rebellion increased after the destruction of the first Death Star.
- Starkiller destroyed, how will that affect the First Order (opening crawl sorted it)
They mad.
- What does it mean "it's time to finish Kylo's training" (not explored)
We don't get to find out because Snoke got bisected, but I'm guessing it wasn't much. Probably Snoke just messing with him to keep him under control. Or maybe Snoke insisting he kill all of his family or whatever.
- Will anything go down between Leia and Kylo given that both have the Force and Han was just killed by Ren (not explored)
It kinda was in the sense of Leia accepting her son is really gone. (maybe)
- How will the Knights of Ren come into play (not explored)
Not yet. They may well show up in Ep. IX. I actually think it'd make sense to introduce them, especially if the theory is that Ben will either turn or be stabbed in the back at the end of IX and cease to be the primary antagonist.
I wish I could get behind all those questions - yet my initial gut reaction on first viewing is I simply don't care. Now I've seen this film 5 times mainly because of my kids and still I'm just not interested in these lightweight second act questions. In fact the more times I've seen this film the more boring and empty it becomes - the questions (response) hang off a dull (call).
I have a theory about that, actually. I think there are a few things at play. First, we've been conditioned -- especially by Ep. VII -- to expect that this film is going to "echo" the previous trilogy. So, everyone watching this film was looking for signposts that point back to ESB (and by implication, point to where we can expect the story to go). That creates a kind of familiarity, and a certain type of excitement: namely, the excitement of knowing what's about to happen and the anticipation of what it will look like. I think a
lot of our entertainment works this way these days. It's either "mystery" drive and we're all trying to figure out the "mystery" or it's "signpost" driven and we all KNOW what's going to happen but the excitement is in the "Oh man, this is gonna be AWESOME" sense. A lot of this is related to why you see a ton of remakes and stuff that references existing material. That audience familiarity allows for a kind of excitement to occur.
What TLJ did, though, was to consciously subvert that whole structure. It played on your expectations and
repeatedly showed you that they were wrong. Each time the film signposted towards "It's gonna go like it did in the other one" it would then move in a different direction. So, you start by expecting Luke to be the wise sage who trains Rey in a Yoda/Obi-Wan-like manner and....nope! He's a bitter old hermit who thinks the Jedi are screwed and deserve to end. You end up with big armored gorilla walkers marching along a pristine white landscape towards a Rebel base, and you're instantly thinking "It's gonna be just like Hoth!" but NOPE! It's salt, for starters, and the way the good guys get away is pretty different from Hoth (e.g., no disabling of the walkers, the speeder attacks are frustrated and the door is blown open, and the REAL victory comes from Luke's image proving that the First Order isn't all powerful). Moreover, it upends what we're meant to expect as the future. At the end of ESB, you see the medical frigate and some other ships flying in a fleet around another star or spiral galaxy or whatever (I forget), with the sense being that the Rebels escaped Hoth and are regrouping. Luke seems ready to go rescue Han, and Lando and Chewie are ready to head out and meet him on Tatooine when he gets there. In TLJ, the sense is that the New Rebellion is basically one freighter full of people. How the hell are they gonna beat the First Order? So, once again, the signpost is removed.
The implication (to me) is that the answer to "How the hell are they gonna beat the First Order?" is "They're not." Or rather, they aren't going to beat the First Order
in the next movie. We're conditioned to expect that the next film will wrap up the story. I don't think it will, though. Certainly, I don't think it
can convincingly. Even with a time jump, it's really, really hard to imagine that Crait led to this massive uprising that has now in the span of [n] years beaten back the First Order and is ready to deal the death blow if they can destroy [insert new superweapon here]. But my guess is that the next film will be much more about resolving
character arcs, and that the larger plot will be left for subsequent films.
Now the most interesting and original part of this film was Ray recounting her cave experience to Kylo - a beautiful and original charachter driven Star Wars sequence with its subversion of who she was telling it to, completely supporting the narrative. I just wish Rey had joined Kylo and a new confused morality had been set up for a fascinating answer in E9. But no, just more the-treading of dull tropes.
Again, I wouldn't be so sure. It might play out that way, sure, but it could also play out with Kylo doing the heel-faceturn and at least becoming a "former villain" who now tries to move towards redemption in subsequent films, or who at least walks away from the First Order and the galaxy-wide war altogether.