Voss Caltrez said:
Han was also risking his life in TFA for the sake of the galaxy, at least that’s how I saw it. Remember, Snoke is using Kylo Ren’s power. Without it, that weakens The First Order, and with it, it makes them that much more dangerous.
Leia didn’t say anything about The First Order being weakened by the absence of Kylo Ren in their scenes together. She just wanted her son back.
Han risked his life to fight for the Rebels and his new found friend, Luke in ANH. If Han somehow had a son in ANH that he had raised for a while, I think it’s pretty likely that he’d also risk his life to bring him back. He risked his life for Luke in ANH, but he wouldn’t do it for his own son?
Well Han came back at the very last second in an ambush attack after the main battle was over. He was hardly in any danger. Had he came in the thick of the battle I would see where you’re coming from.
As far as what the audience needs, I don’t know exactly with the case of Star Wars. But I’d imagine it’s something to do with challenging material rather than comfortable, predictable cliches.
I would prefer this but a lot of people wouldn’t as they would think it doesn’t feel like Star Wars. Hell, even with how Episode VII turned out there are still people that thought it didn’t feel like Star Wars.
But unfortunately the studio is working with a lot of limitations. The original cast are all senior citizens now. Harrison Ford presumably wanted his character to die. They have a lot of baggage from the negative legacy of the prequels. They spent 4 billion just acquiring the rights to the material, so taking creative risk is practically irresponsible in financial terms. I believe even Abrams explained that they made TFA similar to ANH and the OT so the audience can get familiar before they add new stuff in Ep. 8 and 9. So I get all the decisions they made for TFA. However, I can’t fully enjoy a movie if I’m rationalizing all the cliches based on what ensures Disney’s investment.
TFA had to be an extremely hard movie to make. Not only do you have to appease the core fans but you also have to bring in new and casual fans as well. And a lot of new fans (as in young people) aren’t going to watch STAR WARS so they made it a soft remake. But from now on I do hope for at least films with the illusion of originality like the PT but more than that I’m just hoping for good films.