Carrie Fisher’s unexpected death, production delays, reshooting, and Rian Johnson’s SW7 script (written, re-written an then re-written again) made for a very uneven ‘TLJ’. That whole 40 minute sequence with Laura Dern should’ve been left on Disney’s cutting room floor. Still as a true SW fanatic...
You mean when she inexplicably waits until 7/8 of the ships are destroyed before finally warping into the First Order ship? (ridiculous violation of SWU physics)
Fisher died after 8 was filmed. So her death was not what messed up that movie. However, it may have messed up 9 quite badly since the rumor was she was supposed to be featured heavily in it.
8 was bad because the script was a mess and poorly executed. And Kathleen Kennedy feels the need to jam SJW stuff constantly down your throat.
My opinion, I think they made a mistake with these movies. I personally liked Rogue One and Solo quite a lot....Far more than these new trilogy movies. Disney could have done far better by doing spinoffs and side stories like those two and just let the Skywalker saga die at Episode 6. George Lucas had already left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth after the prequels.