I think the best way to summarize what you’re saying here is that the sequels take random bits and pieces from the original 6 movies without understanding exactly why they worked in the first place. I’d agree with this assessment, but this doesn’t discount the fact that there certainly exist theological elements in the sequels. It just means that they are present there because of where they originate from, and the writers only put them there subconsciously at best.
As EddieDean said, I’d highly recommend at least checking out some edits of the sequels that exist here. Hal’s Ascendant edit and TFA: Starlight in particular. The debatable topic here is whether or not a skilled editor’s hand might be able to take the disparate elements in the sequels and create a more uniform framework between them, and the saga at large. I’d argue that we are very close with these edits on this forum.
Yep, I agree with all that, and Hal is the man! His Prequel edits are masterful, even though mine are drastically different. I have seen Hal’s Force Awakens recut, but my feeling after seeing it was, “Just like I thought. It’s unfixable, but Hal fixed it as far as it could possibly go.” You’ve piqued my interest in checking out Hal’s Ascendant Cut, because if anyone could pool the community together to make something workable, it’s Hal. Great edits are always the product of good collaboration. Anyone who says otherwise is nuts!
Essentially, I have no interest in ever trying my hand at recutting the Sequels, because I can fix a Software Issue (George’s SAGA), but I don’t have the patience to fix Hardware. I honesty didn’t change a single one of the major themes, story points, or world ideas that George was aiming for. I just reworked their execution when it was getting in the way of the story George was trying to tell. Like George, I HATE writing, and I only have the patience to do that in my own original work. To attempt to recut the Sequels would mean rewriting them, not just rediting them, and that’s too much work for me to put in on a project that I’m not getting paid for, haha!
The other problem, and this is the MAIN problem with recutting the Sequels is that there isn’t enough footage. In George’s case, I think his films all work best right around the 90 minute mark (Except for RotS which works best at 75mins [That’s still feature length, baby!]). That means in a film like Empire I can cut 40 minutes without even worrying about it. When I saw Hal’s TFA cut, I became drop dead certain that there was no way to fix it, due to a lack of good footage. Think about it, you can cut the WHOLE GUNGAN CITY SEQUENCE from the Phantom Menace, and still have three unique planets, a land battle, a space battle, a sick lightsaber duel, a pod race, and hundreds of new characters/vehicles/props. So even when you cut something major out of a George film, you still have that whole big world in the background at any given time. That’s just not the case for the Sequels.
Last thing. I can’t make the George’s Poetic Mirror Network extend to the Sequels. I have a degree in Medieval Literature, so I know EXACTLY how George’s narrative structure is supposed to work. Basically, the Visuals are the “poetry”, so as long as I keep the Visual Rhyme Scheme in step, I know my cut is working. In the Sequels, I’d have to come up with a Rhyme Scheme (Writing) and then make it musical (Editing), whereas with George I just have to retune an instrument that fundamentally works. A lot of folks don’t realize that the Meta-Structure of George’s 6 films is Two Inverse Trilogies with a Negative Center. . . which is the exact Meta-Structure of the Bible [Creation-Fall-Exile]-(500 Years of Silence)-[Exile-Crucifixion-New Creation] or [I-II-III]-(Interwar Period)-[IV-V-VI]. I is inverse VI, II is Inverse V, III is inverse IV; and the two trilogies meet in the negative center. This is why I had to re-edit all six films at once. There was no other way to balance them out and maintain George’s Visual Poetry Scheme. The only way I could work VII-IX into that scheme (assuming there were enough visual mirrors to do so), would be to film an entire mirrored prequel trilogy to the current prequel trilogy in order to maintain the negative center, lol!
Bottom line, y’all are more than welcome to talk Sequels here. I love it! And if y’all are working through a problem on one of your sequel edits that you think I can help with, feel free to drop me line, but I’m not gonna take a crack at a full sequel edit myself. I’ve got way to much writing/editing on my own stories to work on.