But Sad/Grumpy Luke and Han being a smuggler again were both decisions Abrams made.
Too end TFA on such a climax only to be tossed away in TLJ felt like a complete middle finger, imo.
Was Grump Luke JJs idea? It seems to have come from Johnson. Hopefully all these issues will be fixed at some point in the future.
That was the basic problem with TLJ’s writing. The bathos. Every serious moment had to have a silly manchild moment to break the tension. Lucas had a bad habit of this too, but not nearly as much.
TFA has a big emotional buildup of Rey tearfully holding up the symbol of the franchise…and Luke tosses it aside, KLUNK!
Snoke is creepily holding Rey immobile, Daisy is clenching her teeth in fear and trepidation…then we cut to BB-8 slipping into a wall, WONK!
Rey tries to force-grab her saber and kill Snoke, he casually proves his telekinesis powers overwhelm her as it misses her hand…and then her sword hits her in the back of the head, BONK!
Jar-Jar almost ruined Phantom with his slapstick; we’re lucky that at least SOME editor kept Lucas’ manchild humor in check for the most part. Imagine if, when Luke confronted Palpatine, Vader BONKS Luke in the back of his head with an unlit saber. It would’ve totally killed any tension or threat of the scene.
TLJ had good moments, but Rian insisted on being That Guy who liked to make inappropriate jokes in moments of seriousness because being too serious is uncomfortable, especially for kids.
This guy explains it better than I can (he does good commentary on movies, btw):