The Sequel Trilogy

Now much has been said about the sequel trilogies failings, from poor worldbuilding and internal logic, to incoherent narrative arcs. I will not go too deeply into all that stuff. Disneys greatest mistake was rushing out production to meet quarterly stockholder reviews, instead of taking their time and ensuring they did a great job. The force Awakens was a slam dunk, but it wasn't due to any merit of the filmamkers, it was entirely due to its slavish imitation of new hope, and with such a creatively bankrupt beginning its small wonder the series nosedived hard. What they should have done was do force awakens just the way it was, unoriginality and all. It wasn't brilliant writing by any measure, but it was an easy lay up. Then they should have done a prequel setting up the events of force awakens, and showing the decline of the republic, and the rise of the first order. Then they should have done the triumphant conclusion, where Rey confronts Snoke, and turns Kylo back to the good side. They only had enough ideas for two good stories, but they stretched it out into a highly dubious trilogy of movies, and the results are plain for all to see. The sequel trilogy is what happens when a beloved series of movies becomes soulless corporate product, something not even the soulless corporations want. Lucasfilms greatest sin was not keeping George Lucas deeply involved, he could have pointed out the deficiencies of their scripts, and steered them to the right course. Because of the prequels his judgment was seen as highly suspect, and the sequels did everything in their power to divorce themselves from the prequels, because they were too stupid to recognize true brilliance when they saw it. Now I won't deny the prequels are flawed, but the brilliant parts far outweigh the flaws, unlike the sequel trilogy, where the good and bad are equally balanced. 6/10, purely for the style and verve.