George Lucas’s first installment of Star Wars, was masterful. Let’s face things, he literally forever changed the world with that installment. But, let’s take a moment to identify why we could so easily learn to “love” each major character.
Lucas spent time describing Luke as a farm boy, living with his loving Aunt and Uncle. We watched him work, and yearn to leave home. We watched him get sucked into something bigger than himself, against his will. By the end of the first movie, we knew things that Luke would do, and would never do. We knew that Han was a scoundrel, but one with basic principles of loyalty. We knew things that Han would readily do, and what he wouldn’t do. The same can be said for Leia.
By the end of movie 3, we knew these charctes very well. We knew how they could work together, and form a team, that they could depend upon one another. Alas, the 30 year lag between the first installments of SW, caused Lucas to lose this storytelling capabilities.
In every installment from that point, there is NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. We have no clue what any of the charcters in the last several installments care about; and we generally do not care about them. Rey, who has starred in the last 3 SW installments has absolutely NOTHING to endear us to her. She stands for nothing, but what she FEELS at any given movment, and that can be from slicing Kylo to pieces, to taking falling madly in love with him - depending upon her mood at the time.
There is nothing engaging about ANY of the new characters, from the bug-eyed old woman who apparently is in pistol battles for reasons unknown, to Kylo who seems like a spoiled Milleanial who didn’t get his nap, to the droids who exhibit more personality and charisma than any of the living creatures. The Black Stormtrooper offers NOTHING to the movie, other than he is a black character.
All Disney is doing, is shaking the money tree.
And the money tree is delivering. $500 million domestic, $1 billion worldwide so far.