Star Wars: Better Story needs to Awaken

A couple of things have prompted me to type this up.  First, the Everything Wrong with guys posted their take on SW7.  And I could not agree more.

Now this does not mean I hated the movie or I want people to hate the movie, but there were quite a few things that bothered me story-wise that this Youtube video strongly points out.  Coming out of the movie, I asked some of these same questions but there were also a few I could not remember or articulate.   Like I have said, I was entertained more than I was with Episode 1 but this did not make up for the Prequel series for me.

I later posted this…

I am sometimes amazed that so many people are willing to give Force Awakens a pass on its problems but rip BvS so easily. I see them both in similar light, although I enjoyed the story and characters of BvS, I felt SW7 relied too much on coincidence, poor character development, too much fan-service, unexplained abilities in characters and broke too many axioms established in other films. Meanwhile, SW7 editing was better and visually it was well done. BvS suffered in that area some.

Of course, I got some seriously passionate responses.  Many people just simply ask “Why can’t you just enjoy the movie!?”  My only answer to that is that a large part of the movie is the story.  If the story (and how it is told) bothers me, I am going to discuss and critique it.  I consider myself a decent story teller and when a movie relies too much on the sheepish intelligence of its viewers to tell its own story, it bothers me.

But why do I critique this story so harshly?  Do I want you to hate it?  No, that is the last thing I want.  What I want is the fans to expect better.  Kevin Smith, when he saw Episode 1 for the first time, said it was the best Star Wars movie (on so many words).  Why?  Because it was the only new Star Wars movie and he was “loving the one you are with.”  That’s basically saying I will take whatever crap they are going to feed me as long as it has laser swords, a little pew-pew and scrolling yellow text!  I really want to fans to expect more, expect better than the crap that Disney is going to feed us.  Give us better story!

I am afraid that Disney is going to become the Clear Channel of movies.  Clear Channel is a radio conglomerate that basically broadcasts the lowest common dominator of music so you don’t change the channel.  You end up with the same old sheep-music from one channel to the next.  SO far, they have done OK with the Marvel property but they already have a baseline for the story, from the comics.  They have nothing for Star Wars.

I just want better story and I want fans to expect better!