Damage control

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2019)

As this is one of the firsts reviews I hope someone at Disney company will read this.
This movie have been released yesterday in France and I went to see it day one, in english with french subs, without 3D, for the unreasonable price of 12 euro.
I was born in 1977, I had the toys, I loved the first movies and I always have the pleasure to show them to a new audience (despecialized edition only). I played most of the video games from Tie fighter to Fallen Order, I played the "Westend games Star Wars rolepaying Game", and I am ok with the Timothy Zhan books and the expanded universe. That said I am not closed to innovation.
When episode 1 went out I was happy, it was very different from the Star Wars I used to know and it was far from perfect (Jar Jar didn't work for me but I wasn't 12 years old at the time) but it showed promise. Episodes 2 and 3 were ok, but somehow lacked the magic. Maybe too much CGI effects where the green screen kills the realism on the actor's play, maybe the rythm, I accepted them as part of this universe as they remain coherent but I rarely look at them again.
When Episode VII went out I was enthousiastic and I loved the 30 or so first minutes. It was new, I liked the main protagonists and it felt like an epic adventure was coming. Then Han came on screen and the movie became something else. It became industrial, filling the "STAR WARS DNA" checklist without emotion. Must have the rebellion VS the empire, must have a death star and an X-wing battle, must kill a father figure, must have CGI useless action scenes, must have millions of references for the fans. Almost nothing about the context or the story.. I had to find by myself in books or reviews to just understand what is going on. It wasn't bad enough to throw completely away, just bad enough to be irritating... because you almost made a good movie.
Episode VIII looked promising with the return of Luke and finally some background story, maybe some twists and evolution of characters, maybe a deep look in what the galaxy have become. Well, no. The character of Luke just didn't match (Mark Hamill himself says so), the movie was kind of boring, the casino quest was horrible... It was neither a Star Wars movie nor the following of your own episode VII. It was something else, unfortunately not interesting at all.
I lost hope and I wasn't excited at all by episode IX coming up, so few days ago I clicked on a video about "Episode IX scenario leak". It spoiled most of the scenario but whatever, I was losing interest anyway.
Still, I went to see the movie day one : you earned some money from the ticket and it will add a sale to your first week.
The movie was ok, I already knew the story so I wasn't surprised nor disappointed, and apart from the hyperspace nonsense and some other things I had nothing too bad to say. You made the best movie of your new trilogy in a parallel star wars universe that my brain won't canonise.
It felt like honest hard work : the art was beautiful, you tried to fix your own mistakes, to pull the good strings, to end this damaged arc as well as possible, it was way too late because we don't care about it anymore but it's ok ... just do it right from the start next time.
And next time will be Obi-Wan.
Don't screw this up and the old fans will come back. Don't make some 30 min empty and pointless episodes for little children Ã la Mandalorian (the art is still great, the story and dialogues are lazy, the rest is a joke). Don't focus on the 5-14 years old audience.
Play your last card well, do something epic and deep, light and mature, mystical and wide open to the galaxy. Don't embarrass yourself with easter eggs and winks : create, or at least hire people who can.
Learn from what happened, and good luck for the years to come.