This sounds super interesting, do you mind sending a link?
Sent! Would love feedback on Episode 9 specifically if you get a chance to watch all of them soon.
Also, one thing I’ve noticed about TRoS is its small scale, smaller than even TFA and TLJ. The only moment that feels of appropriate scale for the finale of the saga is the Galaxy Fleet arriving, but that only lasts for about a minute. The Battle of Exegol feels extremely rushed compared to the Battles of Endor or Scarif which were much more fleshed out. This movie feels the least like a war than all the other Star Wars movies, it mostly feels like a treasure hunt spinoff save for the actions on Exegol. These are problems are pretty ingrained in the film’s story and structure, but I was wondering if you had any ideas how to remedy the scale issue?
Yes, I definitely agree with you on the problem of scale in the movie. The final battle is simply not written well, and the lead up didn’t do much to build up any tension for it either. I would say the main ways I corrected this were by unifying Palpatine’s plan throughout the entire trilogy into something cohesive and sensible, greatly adjusting the narrative of Episode 8 to give a deeper commentary of the themes of the force, and building the villainous presence of Kylo.
There’s no getting around the fact that there simply isn’t much content at all in the space battle, and the land battle has nothing to do with it (aside from Palpatine’s force lightning attack). So I tried to focus more on the drama of the characters themselves rather than an epic battle. Star Wars doesn’t really have any deep, thought out battles like Helm’s Deep, so I tried to keep the priority on the characters throughout the trilogy so that some of the bland battle scenes are at least amplified by more intriguing character development.
I feel I did a better job of highlighting the drama of the balance of the force itself than theatrical, so the main tension comes from what will happen to that state of the galaxy as a result of the force instead of the machines and creations of man in space. As we know, those things are “insignificant compared to the power of the force”.
I know I’ll be releasing a v3.1 for this edit, as on my rewatch I noticed how poorly the theatrical cut introduces Kylo back into Exegol. I need to reorganize those scenes to keep the tension brewing longer, in JJ’s film it is so hopeful for such a long period and makes Palpatine constantly look like an unprepared idiot. I fixed Palpatine’s plan, but I need to reorder some of the exegol scenes to help with the tension building still.