altnameJag said:
Well, I mean, Phasma needs to be as cool as her design and demeanor, but there's precious little Disney needs to redeem themselves for in my mind.
Y'know something funny, its quite possible Phasma will return again in IX, and she's been referenced internally as the Star Wars equivalent of Kenny from South Park. Truly speaking though the surrounding material that deals with her backstory and post-TFA/pre-TLJ escape from the garbage compactor fleshes her out to be a pretty neat character overall, just that the movies didn't have enough room or time to really do her justice. Yeah she's basically this trilogy's Boba Fett, a badass who invariably gets punked out of showing their badassery, but then her fight with Finn was actually quite good. I can also get behind Finn besting her as she did personally train him and his squad and even thought he would be one of the finest stormtroopers she ever trained but also felt his capacity for empathy would hold him back from becoming the perfect First Order trooper. Moreover that empathy is what led Finn to desert, in-part because of the massacre of villagers he refused to take part in, and also due to his squadmate/friend "Slip," who initially was the weakest of Finn's squad and whom Finn had supported during training despite Phasma's chastising to let Slip fail and wash out, being shot and killed by Poe during that massacre (Slip was the trooper who leaves the blood streak on Finn's helmet). Plus Phasma wanted to have Finn reconditioned instead of outright executed for his failure to fire his weapon which could have been construed as treason.
To me it seems, despite her ruthless, cold, calculating nature, she may have harbored some sort of feelings for Finn because on multiple occasions during his training she praised him publicly in front of his squad, and even overlooked many things during his training she perceived to be failures like his empathy, not following orders during the squad's first action where they were ordered to kill unarmed miners who were on strike and believing Phasma was there to negotiate with them, and his refusal to shoot during the Jakku massacre. Up to the point where he deserted, it seemed she really wanted to believe in Finn's potential as her finest trainee and at their last meeting, what she said to him and the way she said it makes me feel she took it as a personal betrayal, especially when she says "you were always scum," as if she was projecting all that disappointment and hurt onto him in an effort to make him feel how she did. Granted Phasma was most definitely evil, self-serving, but looking at all the backstory available, the argument can still be made she wasn't without emotion, nor that she couldn't have cared for Finn in some twisted form.
It does suck though that such an interesting character is relegated to being basically an ancillary plot device in The Force Awakens, and given too little screen time in her fight with Finn in The Last Jedi. If anything the failure to make more of a connection between her and Finn on-screen but rather handling it in ancillary material like comics and novels/novellas, both wastes her as a character in the film and actually takes away some of the character arc of Finn who is a major protagonist.
Yeah I can definitely say that while I love both TFA and TLJ and think they're both excellent Star Wars films, there are problems in both films that while they aren't enough to be major issues, they do affect things I feel are key elements to proper character development. Though those key elements do exist in other media forms, I feel its still annoying for Disney/Lucasfilm to essentially force viewers/fans to read that extra media in order to properly experience character development that could have been included in the films. Moreover the excuse that the films were too long to include those bits doesn't hold up as there are scenes that exist in both that aren't wholly relevant to the story or scenes that could have been shortened a bit to make room to include more of the Finn/Phasma dynamic and giving Phasma a bit more well-deserved screen time.
But I'm just nitpicking really.
To answer the OP's post though, I feel that even though VII, VIII, and Rogue One all have flaws, my experiences watching them in the theater are some of my favorite outings especially in an era of my life where I feel that going to the theater is almost never worth the money inevitably spent on the experience with ticket prices and just a drink and popcorn for one person being over $20 and I never go without at least my wife or daughter depending on the film, sometimes both. In fact, while nothing can duplicate my childhood experiences of seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater and later being able to experience all three on a big screen when a local theater put on the widescreen THX remastered cuts which had just been released on VHS (not to be confused with the Special Edition remasters), The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi both managed to evoke similar feelings to how I felt watching the original trilogy films the first time. The prequels, while managing to give me the goosebumps I always get whenever the opening crawl and theme for each movie (except Rogue One of course) begins, weren't as memorable though I don't hate them and still quite enjoyed them all in the theater.
But the current releases from the Disney-era have made me feel like the IP is in good hands, and actually a relief that its out of Lucas'. I respect George for bringing us the Star Wars universe, and I feel really his only downfall with the prequels was his own ego and insistence on writing/directing them himself when, had he looked back at the history of the previous trilogy, the best of them were written and directed by other people, and quite possibly there was also the constraints of budget and people who were willing to tell him "no."
With the current films, there's no creator-ego backed by a ton of money and yes-men, which is a huge plus. And with the way the Last Jedi went with the story, I feel they took a huge risk with the events in it, going against what many people expected which I feel is why so many had poor reactions to it. But in the current society it seems many people are more prone to knee-jerk reactions especially when they approach something as rooted in pop-culture as Star Wars with certain expectations, whether its their own head-canon or having read too many fan theories regarding the film and its lore or whatever. When those expectations aren't met, or the film makes a turn that totally devalues fan theory or head-canon, then some people just immediately dismiss the film as crap and don't bother to give it a proper chance to stand on its own merit. And yes I realize that there are those who genuinely just don't like TFA or TLJ, and that's absolutely fine, so long as they're honestly making that judgment on merit and not just pissed because Rey isn't Luke/Obi-Wan/Palpatine's kid or Snoke isn't Plageius or whatever else they expected. And since no film is perfect, nor can they ever be, that there are plot holes and general storytelling or filmmaking issues within both films is not necessarily a detriment to them either, as I recognize one of my favorite films of all time, The Goonies, as having a lot of filmmaking errors in it and yet still retains the charm and overall fun story within it for me to consider it one of my top 5 films.
Anyway, Disney's done nothing wrong with Star Wars and I'm looking forward to both the Han Solo film and IX. IX especially because now I've no idea what to expect from it after TLJ and that uncertainty only adds to my excitement towards whatever it may bring to close out this trilogy.
