- Time
- Post link
Not sure I really get it - you dislike SKB so you want to put all its introductory/expository stuff at the same time, rather than spread out?
The intel and plan of attack scene is absolutely nuts. It pissed me off the first time I saw the movie but now I just laugh along with it. I do think this edit makes it worse though because at least in the theatrical we’ve known for a awhile that there’s a weapon and by then we know what it’s capable of. So we’ve let it sink in well before that scene that this is a thing that will have to be stopped, which eases the abruptness of the plan. In the restructure, however, we learn about the base and then get the plan to destroy it almost immediately after.
I really am advocating a ROTJ solution. Obviously the original film handles the super weapon subplot the best as the mission to destroy it is really the main plot and everything that happens revolves around the mission to destroy it. In ROTJ, destroying the DS is really secondary to the primary plot of confronting/saving Vader - as in TFA it’s secondary to Rey’s call to the Force and finding Luke. So just like in TFA there’s one single scene where the Rebels learn about the DS (remember “Little does Luke know”?) and come up with a plan to destroy it. But no one ever complained about that scene. Why? I’d say it’s for two reasons. One: it’s the start of the second act rather than the third, and two: we are already well aware of the impending threat of the second DS, having read about it in the crawl and seeing Vader and the Emperor board it.
So in my mind, the solution is simple - add the impending threat of the SKB to the crawl and then let it loom throughout the film. The idea that it’s this mysterious ace up their sleeve that the First Order has is an interesting one, but it doesn’t really work narratively, I don’t think. The main problem being, even with the changes you’ve made to the crawl, I honestly feel like we understand the FO less. We just don’t understand their purpose. I mean sure, galactic domination, fine, but what’s their course of action? The theatrical gives us explanation by way of wanting to wipe out The Last Jedi. At the very least, I think there needs to be some indication in the crawl that the FO has plans to obliterate the Republic, even if we don’t necessarily know how yet. In that case, if you want the super weapon to be the ace up the sleeve, at least you’ve gotten the set up that they need an ace up their sleeve (really a proper set up and resolution of the question posed by the late Republic senators: are they a looming threat or aren’t they?).
