Andrew LaRocca

While meant to please the fans of this franchise, who are very difficult to please, Disney does this at the expense of undermining the legacy of the previous films. By bringing Palpatine back without explanation, Disney destroys the character arcs of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, and diminishes their role from saviors to stepping stones. While Lucas intended for Anakin to be the Chosen One, one cannot deny that Rey steals that mantle by truly bringing balance to the Force and competing the task originally meant for Anakin. Rather than taking the franchise in an innovative direction, Abrams relies on retconning and redundant tropes to rewrite this installment as a fan flick, such as making Rey related to a Palpatine and using the same old story of the rebels fighting the Empire in a space battle. The biggest problem here is Disney tries to rewrite the franchise in its last film, and by doing so, complicates the entire saga by having this film directly clash with its predecessors, in particular TLJ, ROTJ, and ROTS.