The editing in TFA was terrible. I had a conversation with a top Hollywood editor and he seemed offended I would think so and said I was wrong.
But I stand by my point. It’s downright terrible in TFA.
The first sequence was a disaster and should have been cut. The rest of Act I with Rey on Jakku was done pretty well I thought. This was the only part of the film that was allowed to breathe. The bit on the freighter was intolerable. After that, the film just felt rushed and jerky, no rhythm whatsoever. As Ric pointed out, I think the editing of the space battle in the final act was really poorly done. There was no dramatic tension at all.
I remember in the trailer there is a wide shot of BB-8 in the X-wing set against the snowy landscape on Starkiller, and all these TIE fighters start closing in. Such a dramatic and foreboding shot, but it wasn’t even edited right in the final film … I remember seeing it at the theater and thinking “that’s all they did with that great shot?” Then it was just pew-pew yippee we did it! Game over.
Another potentially great moment in the film was the reveal of Darth Vader’s melted helment. As it turns out, the thing was on screen for a total of 0.5 seconds right at the end of a scene and that’s it. The camera was on Kylo talking to himself for 30 seconds or whatever, and then only so briefly do we see Vader’s helmet. There is no buildup towards this scene, no real context that Kylo wants to “finish what he started”, so this huge reveal really calls for the film to
Stop.
Call attention to the helmet. And Kylo.
Really let it sit in for a moment.
And then carry on.
…Instead, we see it on screen for half a second and then mid-transition – welp – we’re onto the next action sequence just like that, no big deal.
Just out of curiosity, are you a filmmaker?
I only ask because you’re throwing out some pretty big opinions, and I’m curious about your credentials.
I’m not a filmmaker and I agree on all Alderaan’s points above. I don’t have a strong memory about the editing itself for the whole movie, but I agree the pacing was uneven and so was the sense of time. There wasn’t a time to breath or let things sink in until they got out of Jakku and the end battle was pretty messy and it felt like it didn’t even matter. The trailers were great, especially the Japanese one.