OK, so...
Ep. IX - The Rise of Skywalker
...
Minor tweaks that could have made it better: Just a reminder before I get into this that this section in my little summaries isn't meant to decry "the movie we should have gotten." As I have said before, I think that is an incredibly silly, presumptuous, and counterproductive exercise. To me, either accept or reject the movie we actually got. This is just meant to be a fun little imaginative bit where we pretend we could rewind the clock and be part of the creative team to suggest things that, in retrospect, could have maybe worked better.
To me, there are two areas of tweaking. The first is the timeline issue, as mentioned above in issue #1. Just extend the timeline and show that things are happening over a longer timeframe rather than instantaneously. The second is a bit more complicated and macro. It has to do with both pacing and continuity with TLJ. One way to look at these two films, to me is: TLJ was too little plot crammed into too much movie, whereas ROS was too much plot crammed into too much movie. I am going to go back and do a "reboot" of my "minor tweaks" section for TLJ and propose a global "minor tweaks" for both of these films that addresses both of my issues above. Coming soon to a post near you...
So if I'm King of Star Wars for a day, here's what I do globally with both films to make a story that feels more balanced to me:
The Last JediAct I: This is basically the
actual Act I and Act II of the film combined into one act. Act I is the chase and Rey training with Luke. But instead of being 2/3 of the movie, it is 1/3 now and the entire casino planet arc is removed. So it would basically look like this:
-Opening battle, bombing fleet is destroyed, good guys escape [this is basically the same]
-Slight changes in tracking device plot: Hux briefly explains that he had his guys come up with an experimental device that can track through light speed. It works, but is unstable, and they haven't had time to replicate it. ...SO IT IS ONLY ON ONE SHIP.
-The good guys have gone to very near a nebula or some other space phenomenon that makes it too dangerous to have ships warp in in front of the good guy fleet, so the First Order are stuck doing a slow chase and waiting until they run out of fuel. Snoke's ship (not the entire bad guy fleet) appears and starts the slow chase.
-Show a montage that demonstrates the chase is taking place over a slightly longer period of time while Rey is training. AFTER a little bit, the attack ensues where Leia is injured, etc. Rey senses that her friends are in trouble, and vows to cut her training short and go help them.
-Holdo holds out, resulting in eventual stealth mutiny while Finn and Rose sneak aboard (no need to go to the casino to find the key master).
-From here, the rest of the act plays out about the same, where Rey goes aboard Snoke's ship, Snoke dies, etc. This all culminates with the Holdo Manuever and the good guys escaping. ...except that the First Order does NOT know where they went, and they get away and hunker down on Crait.
Act II: Fairly short. I guess it's not correct to call it an "act" in the film. But it is an unrelated middle section, perhaps the length of the entire casino planet arc. This is all about the First Order regrouping, Kylo taking control, and him finding Exegol.
-The First Order regroups and begins searching (1) for the good guys, and (2) for the source of these voices/the disturbance in the force that Kylo is feeling. This is basically slightly expanding and slightly changing the montage at the beginning of ROS to give it a bit more space to breathe and to actually plant the seed of Palpatine returning. Kylo feels that something bigger is pulling at him. He thought it was Snoke. But now that Snoke has been eliminated, it is more focused, and it is stronger. It calls him to find Exegol.
-During all this, we see a bit more of the wedge growing between Kylo and Hux to where Hux resents him more and more.
-This act culminates with Kylo getting the wayfinder and going to Exegol, and Palpatine being revealed. No more exposition here about
how Palpatine is back from the dead, because if he is revealed here, but the details are not, the suspense serves the plot and is good.
Act III: Crait. This plays out pretty much exactly as in the film, except without Rose making her stupid non-sacrifice that made things worse.
Epilogue: Leia tells them she has faith that although nobody answered the call, people will come to their aid. They just have to try harder. They are going to send people out on missions to recruit every last fighter and pilot they can find. And she knows some old friends who can maybe help... (setting up Lando, and making the spontaneous appearance of the largest fleet we have ever seen at the end of ROS believable)
Oh, and sprinkled in here
somewhere, the Knights of Ren can show up and do...something. Anything.
And I'm not touching Phasma. There is probably a bit that could be done with her to make her arc...um...exist. But whatever.
Rise of Skywalker:
Okay, now we don't have to deal with the whole opening montage and Kylo going to Exegol, which gives things a bit more time to breathe in this film. We are still going to move at breakneck speed, but we can slow down just a bit and allow a bit more exposition. And Palpatine does not seem so...dropped in our laps. Here are my minor changes:
-Since we don't have/need the opening montage, let's have this open in a more "traditional" Star Wars way. The opening crawl is
similar, but slightly different. We know Palpatine is back. Maybe we can drop a bit of exposition in the opening crawl about how he did actually die and his acolytes used the dark side to eventually harness his spirit and bring him back. We can do a bit more in some dialog later as well. But the film proper opens with, fittingly, a Final Order star destroyer, equipped with canon, destroying a planet. Maybe one like Naboo, so we have some emotional investment. And the order going out that they have...I dunno...a week to offer their formal surrender, or else the same fate will befall all worlds that do not submit. Now we have stakes that make sense, AND we have a more realistic timeline. AND we don't need to opening montage, the spy we have never seen before, or light speed skipping. Win-win (and win).
-Now we pick up with Rey training.
-Give a bit more exposition on the Final Order fleet and Palpatine as needed. Fleet comes up out of water, because that still looks every bit as amazing, but is actually realistic. Explanation that the ships are hovering in "dock" mode, and the reason they need the antenae/guidance system is because there are so many ships in close proximity, and they are big, and there is interference from the...whatever the heck created all the interference and weird strobes...and
all those factors combined made it necessary for a beacon to guide them out.
That's why they are "sitting ducks" until they can all get out.
-Fix the desert planet stuff just a bit because the quicksand/cave bit worked, but was too wonky as written.
-Sprinkle in hints that a fleet is maybe being assembled and they maybe are reaching people. Nothing concrete. But something to give a sliver of hope that maybe people actually ARE coming to the final battle.
That's pretty much it. Yanking a big chunk of ROS and putting it in TLJ makes it possible to do all these other minor fixes and tweaks and would just make the whole thing more cohesive without really having to revamp the entire story. Those are my thoughts anyway.