My initial beliefs (not having read any posts/replies yet):
Warning: spoilers to any existing Disney or Lucasfilm Star Wars film will manifest
1. Ren telling Rey her parents were like my ex was just a means to lure her. It's a cliché, but...
2. "Solo" could be setting up Qira as being Rey's mother, having banged Darth Maul (or at least the talkie toaster he banged because he loved it and always had it repaired with care.)
3. Others have the force beyond the soap opera dynasty of the Skywalker clan.
4a. It is revealed that had Finn flown into the cannon from TLJ, it would have been futile. Rose's deleted scene stripped her idiocy of saving Finn of any background detail/justification.
4b. Since deleted scenes aren't canon, show more of Rose having developing emotions for him or using the deleted scene as a callback.
4c. Ditto for when Finn sees Rey kissing him. I've no problem with a love triangle as a small subplot or hook into episode X since Adam, Daisy, et al, have been perfectly cast despite any nitpicks with the scripts. And the scripts have some fair ideas, it's the rough edges that can be very rough.
5. It is revealed that the map to find Skywalker was used as a distraction so Ren and his Knights could take over the galaxy while the resistance chased wild geese. (Right before the reveal that it's 5 years later and Kylo has won and rules with niceness instead of the evil Palpatine had. This bit in parenthesis is a known leak, but I don't recall reading if the map issue was addressed. Ditto for the other points in this long, tedious list but I will point each instance out where I do cite the leaks.)
6a. DJ has got to return. Great baddie. Don't make him turn good. He's like Han Solo only for the bad guys and not the good guys.
6b. This is because, clearly, his having a convenient ship and prison cell were there as a trap to get Finn and Rose into buying the ruse.
7. Do the job Episode VII should have done and explain how the First Order took over during the gulf of years after the tiny band of rebels took down Palpy's big empire.
8. No more force pulls from reanimated corpses in space, force telekinesis, etc. Actually, the pull was okay. How she managed to survive to consciousness is another issue... the telekinesis of water to Kylo also stretched credibility. Fantasy powers still need some context and rules, otherwise it becomes "Harry Potter on crack".
9. Please let the movies do a little explaining of things. Casual and moderate fans may not know all the comics and tv series that explain Luke's projection or Maul's survival. Granted, a spinoff or sequel could indeed explain those issues as well, but if it's a gamble. If the movie is good then people will come back because they want to know. If the movie isn't starting to look good then they needed to add closure to be on the safe side. Maul was left hanging and in a movie that, while getting some mixed and good reviews (which, considering the problems during its making, is genuinely remarkable in of itself and enough for me to go see it), isn't the outright extravaganza everyone was hoping for.
10. Kylo gets a new mask but keeps the cool electronically-modified voice. Adam Driver is great either way (seriously, the new movies have rough edges but so did the OT and Kathleen Kennedy is being a bit unfairly treated despite some of the dumber instances.)
Lastly, I'll end on this - it's too good not to include as it's one of many reminders why the OT is also loaded with flaws and rough edges:
(and it's easier to sit through all 2 minutes 39 seconds of that than all 10 thousand years of "The Force Awakens".)
(at 2:17, Leia seals the deal. She's always known. Talk about a cold shower... erm,
)
Still, I've yet to see a Disney movie that is worse than the prequels, if for no other reason than not having extremely clunky dialogue. (I blame it on the sand. It gets everywhere. Del Tarrant told us so), though the prequels also went so far overkill with the action-over-substance nonsense to the point I popped in a 1990 CGI extravaganza in VHS format, "The Mind's Eye", and got more out of that than wtaching General Grievance whipping out 4 light sabers to mix a martini with them all while Obi just stands there in mindless awe instead of taking the high road and slicing his power wire to save the audience several minutes of theatrical boredom, Yoda bouncing off the walls, hover skateboards over fiery hot lava yet neither of them were breaking a sweat (is the Force really that good or are they just a pair of Marty Stu McFlys?)
Warning: spoilers to any existing Disney or Lucasfilm Star Wars film will manifest
1. Ren telling Rey her parents were like my ex was just a means to lure her. It's a cliché, but...
2. "Solo" could be setting up Qira as being Rey's mother, having banged Darth Maul (or at least the talkie toaster he banged because he loved it and always had it repaired with care.)
3. Others have the force beyond the soap opera dynasty of the Skywalker clan.
4a. It is revealed that had Finn flown into the cannon from TLJ, it would have been futile. Rose's deleted scene stripped her idiocy of saving Finn of any background detail/justification.
4b. Since deleted scenes aren't canon, show more of Rose having developing emotions for him or using the deleted scene as a callback.
4c. Ditto for when Finn sees Rey kissing him. I've no problem with a love triangle as a small subplot or hook into episode X since Adam, Daisy, et al, have been perfectly cast despite any nitpicks with the scripts. And the scripts have some fair ideas, it's the rough edges that can be very rough.
5. It is revealed that the map to find Skywalker was used as a distraction so Ren and his Knights could take over the galaxy while the resistance chased wild geese. (Right before the reveal that it's 5 years later and Kylo has won and rules with niceness instead of the evil Palpatine had. This bit in parenthesis is a known leak, but I don't recall reading if the map issue was addressed. Ditto for the other points in this long, tedious list but I will point each instance out where I do cite the leaks.)
6a. DJ has got to return. Great baddie. Don't make him turn good. He's like Han Solo only for the bad guys and not the good guys.
6b. This is because, clearly, his having a convenient ship and prison cell were there as a trap to get Finn and Rose into buying the ruse.
7. Do the job Episode VII should have done and explain how the First Order took over during the gulf of years after the tiny band of rebels took down Palpy's big empire.
8. No more force pulls from reanimated corpses in space, force telekinesis, etc. Actually, the pull was okay. How she managed to survive to consciousness is another issue... the telekinesis of water to Kylo also stretched credibility. Fantasy powers still need some context and rules, otherwise it becomes "Harry Potter on crack".
9. Please let the movies do a little explaining of things. Casual and moderate fans may not know all the comics and tv series that explain Luke's projection or Maul's survival. Granted, a spinoff or sequel could indeed explain those issues as well, but if it's a gamble. If the movie is good then people will come back because they want to know. If the movie isn't starting to look good then they needed to add closure to be on the safe side. Maul was left hanging and in a movie that, while getting some mixed and good reviews (which, considering the problems during its making, is genuinely remarkable in of itself and enough for me to go see it), isn't the outright extravaganza everyone was hoping for.
10. Kylo gets a new mask but keeps the cool electronically-modified voice. Adam Driver is great either way (seriously, the new movies have rough edges but so did the OT and Kathleen Kennedy is being a bit unfairly treated despite some of the dumber instances.)
Lastly, I'll end on this - it's too good not to include as it's one of many reminders why the OT is also loaded with flaws and rough edges:
(and it's easier to sit through all 2 minutes 39 seconds of that than all 10 thousand years of "The Force Awakens".)
(at 2:17, Leia seals the deal. She's always known. Talk about a cold shower... erm,
)Still, I've yet to see a Disney movie that is worse than the prequels, if for no other reason than not having extremely clunky dialogue. (I blame it on the sand. It gets everywhere. Del Tarrant told us so), though the prequels also went so far overkill with the action-over-substance nonsense to the point I popped in a 1990 CGI extravaganza in VHS format, "The Mind's Eye", and got more out of that than wtaching General Grievance whipping out 4 light sabers to mix a martini with them all while Obi just stands there in mindless awe instead of taking the high road and slicing his power wire to save the audience several minutes of theatrical boredom, Yoda bouncing off the walls, hover skateboards over fiery hot lava yet neither of them were breaking a sweat (is the Force really that good or are they just a pair of Marty Stu McFlys?)
