The biggest problem with the Star Wars Sequels

The very first Star Wars movie I ever watched was The Force Awakens when it came out in 2015. I was 15 at the time, and although I had seen all of the other Star Wars films that had come out already, I couldn't help but be excited about what i was going to watch. This was a monumental occasion and I was ready to watch this film. Around 2 and a half hours later, I thought it was a fairly good movie, but it would only be a few months later that the internet's opinions would start changing slowly but dramatically about the film. As the other films were being made, and then released, each film dramatically turned out differently to the point where more and more people (including the actors in the film) began to have issues about the films and problems began to pop up left and right! So, what happened? Why were these highly anticipated films now being treated as if they were the worst thing since "The Room"? To me, this has to do with what Disney thought of as "damage control".

When the Star Wars Prequels came out they were continually criticized because of the story, the wooden acting, and the dialouge. So when Disney bought the franchise in 2012, I think they wanted to get as far away as possible from the issues people had with those films. The only problem with this is that the films feel like they aren't telling a proper story, and instead are reacting to others opinions and trying to make money off of it. The biggest indication of this is the treatment of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalkers direction. The Rise of Skywalker was made solely to undo all of the plot points that the Last Jedi set up. But why? Why was this the route they chose to take? I think this was because they had no real plan made. They wanted to do something different but also wanted to push an agenda, and it feels like they wanted to destroy the legacy of these characters and their stories instead of creating a new adventure for a new audience.

If you look through interviews with the actors, you can see the legitimate dissapointment on their faces as the films progress. In particular with Oscar Issac and John Boyega, who were displeased with the path that their characters go on throughout the duration of this trilogy. It became clear that the actors didn't agree with what the directors of these films had in mind for their characters. Even Mark Hamil, who famously portrayed Luke Skywalker had complaints about his character- disagreeing with how he would act as a Jedi Knight. In the end he did his job and worked with the director to complete the film, but just looking at the interviews here, it's clear that there was a disconnect felt with everyone involved with these films. Both actors and audiences alike felt that there were many problems with how these films were written. But a question I'd like to ask is: who is really at fault for this?

We can blame the directors for these films- Rian Johnson and J.J. Abrams, but I don't think that this is entirely fair. I think that they did make mistakes when it came to the storytelling, but ultimately, they were hired by Disney- who in my opinion were only concerned with the money they would make from this IP (intellectual property), and never bothered to make a plan for the overall trilogy. Each movie is wildly different from the last, and fails to resolve plot points that were started in the Force Awakens, since J.J. Abrams himself didn't even have a plan for these stories, and Rian Johnson made a movie he wanted to make, but it changed the status quo of the universe, and had to be retconned to finish JJ's story that he started.

Overall, even though i have complaints about these films, I don't hate these movies. I do think that they have problems, and some of them are legitimately bad, but I don't think they are the worst things I've ever laid eyes on. My thoughts are just that these films were rushed, and made with an agenda in mind instead of a honest attempt to tell a new and interesting story that would have made them a lot more money, but also would have the respect and love of their audience.