Yeah, I liked a lot of the stuff in it but then there were just aspects about it that bugged me. But I feel the greater problem has been with this trilogy as a whole; we’re two movies in and I feel like we still don’t really know how all of this was set up. Who exactly are the First Order? How did they come about? Are they mostly just remnants of the Empire or are they young fanatics who have lionized this extinct evil regime? Where did Snoke come from? How did he come in contact with Kylo Ren? I guess maybe it was through that “force Skype” thing they do in TLJ, but I’m not sure.
I suppose you could say the same thing about the original trilogy; we’re given next to no backstory on the Empire or Palpatine himself (I don’t even think his name is used). In fact, I think the only reason I knew his backstory was because of the prologue in the novelization of ANH (also the first and only place the term “Sith” was used before the prequels, I believe). Yet despite all that, the films felt more complete to me. Maybe it’s because I was able to watch them all in succession because almost all of them were released before I was born. But I think even if I had been able to see them with multi-year gaps in between, I wouldn’t feel like there’s this massive gap in the story. Like, at the end of TESB, you find out Vader is Luke’s father. Shocking for sure, but it’s also obviously something that’s going to be followed up on. At the end of TLJ, Snoke is killed and it’s like, “Ummm... okay? What now? Oh, I guess Kylo is the big bad.” I don’t know. I don’t want to crap on these new films too much because I like the new characters and they’re a BILLION times better than those horrid prequels. But I also feel like they’re a bit of a mess in terms of storytelling.
