Would more exposition have helped or hurt?

I don't think more exposition was necessary, there was plenty of exposition but the whole chase was not properly thought out. They cold have done many different variations, in fact if they were going to do something so similar to battlestar they could have gone all the way and make them jump to hyperspace several times.

 

More exposition is almost always a bad idea.

 

Not every single thing must be explaind in movies, even if is Star Wars. Some of my favorites movies of all times, considered masterpieces, leave a lot of open questions and many possibilities for viewers to decide for themselves. 2001 A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner are examples.

 

I think more exposition would have helped the movie, just not with the chase. More exposition of Snoke, the FO, Kylo & the KoR, & Rey would have been nice

 

I may be alone in this, but I understood exactly what was going on. I needed no additional exposition. It wasn't the most exciting thing ever or the most interesting plot point, but more exposition would have had no positive impact on that.

I think the exposition for the chase was more than sufficient.

 

We didn't need in depth exposition as to why The Millennium Falcon was able to hide by attaching itself to a Star Destroyer and not be sighted by any other Tie fighter or other ship in the fleet in TESB; we just went with it. Fans need to stop reaching to find problems.

 

It would be an interesting experiment to see what the age demographics are for those who desire further explanation and exposition vs those who are fine using context clues and literary problem solving on their own.

I mean that statement in no way as a negative towards younger audiences or anyone who felt the movie lacked exposition. I genuinely ask because at least in the US, the education system has been making a huge shift especially in the realm of literature, English, and writing to no longer encourage the use of context clues or interpreting text. Document comprehension is no longer really based on the grasping of an overall concept, but the ability to find information. Primarily for standardized testing.

When I was in school, many of the questions that followed reading a suggested passage was, "What do you think the author was trying to convey in the passage."

Now they read more, "Please reference the part of the passage where the author indicates he/she felt like this."

I am curious as to whether learning style has shifted watching/entertainment comprehension and responses.

 

It's just how media is consumed now. So it's not the fault of the younger generation.
It's YouTube and Tumblr.
Can the context of this fit inside of a GIF or a 5 minute "reaction" video with no actual content.

*shrugs*

Subtext is often lost. It's sad but it is what it is.

 

And also consider that too much exposition usually destroys pacing. Too much exposition also means the writer is treating his audience as small ignorant children who cannot distinguish subtext and indirect plot constitution. If a movie gives too much exposition it basically makes you believe you're an idiot.

 

Ideally, I'd say that a throwaway line referencing something here or there could have helped, but even in situations where we did have them they often went unnoticed by people wanting to poke holes in the plot.

Instead, assuming more is to be done with Snoke/Rey/any of the other "mysteries" after TFA (and indeed, there's no guarantee any of this will ever be expanded on) then I would have appreciated something to keep the wheels in our heads going.

For instance, let's say Snoke isn't actually dead (totally hypothetical, but stay with me). Instead of randomly bringing him back in the next film, it could have been nice to have something to reference his eventual possible return, outside of whatever they might give us in the expanded media.

Because now, if he does return (or if Rey does have different parents, or if Luke can somehow return, or anything really) we just don't have that many questions. If there's a fault of RJ, it's that he did the opposite of TFA. At this point, I actually don't feel like I have that many questions. At the end of TFA, there was so much speculation. The galaxy was still the one we knew, but it had changed. TLJ wipes the slate pretty clean, but doesn't really give us much carrot on the end of the proverbial stick. Instead, I honestly have no idea where IX is going.

Which ultimately does have its advantages, I'll totally admit. But I think there's a happy medium between JJ and RJ somewhere, something that both offers the mystery box and provides a satisfying but surprising payoff.

edit: Oh, also- one of Star Wars biggest advantages in exposition is those opening credits. The choppy pre-Jedha scenes of Rogue One show how useful those crawls are at setting the table, and the issue with cutting it out.

 

There was arguably too much exposition as is.

The only thing I would have liked more explanation of is Snoke. One line in TFA or TLJ--even just a phrase like "A dark force came from the unknown regions" thrown into the crawl or some jazz--would have added to his arc.

 

No : the movie already has big pacing issues. More exposition would just make it worse.

Besides, the slow chase is not that hard to understand ; the problem here was much simpler : it's just boring.

 

Yeah, I definitely agree that the way we utilize media has changed.

It is sort of chicken/egg scenario to me. Did we change how we educated in response or it this a response to how we educate?

I don't have an answer, just sort of throwing it out as a talking point.

(My wife is a high school English teacher, some of the ways/things teachers are forced to teach and the style they are taught today baffles and saddens me to my core.)

 

Also, exposition could be awkward. Think in terms of regular day use. If you're on a road trip and are about to run out of gas are which of these are you going to say:

a) "Hey, we're low on gas, we should get refilled when we get the chance."

or

b) "Hey, we're low on gas. Without it, we'll be unable to provide this vehicle with the intake, compression, internal combustion, and exhaust processes that combine to provide energy and help the car propel forward. We should go to a gas station and exchange currency for the refined fossil fuels that we need for this process to work. In some states, gas stations are self pumping, while in others attendants will help you. We should call ahead to prepare for this experience. We'll use my cellphone, which will compress my voice into a radio wave and beam it to its source. That's as long as as my lithium battery is still charged, of course!"

Of course that's somewhat satirical, but like I've said many times before- fantasy's realmsim (itself basically an oxymoron) is totally dependant on your suspension of disbelief. Personally, I don't think we need to revert to Dialogue Option B just to appease the overly critical cynics in the crowd.

 

I agree with you. The Last Jedi tied up so many loose ends that I don't see how Ep. IX would pick up from it. In Empire, we were just thrown the twist of Darth Vader being Luke's dad and the Rebels needing to go save Han Solo. Plus, we had the heretofore-mysterious Emperor to look forward to. In The Last Jedi, we have...uh...Kylo Ren continuing to chase the Resistance and Random Broom Boy?

 

It's a chicken/egg scenario.
I'd also add Netflix/binge watching doesn't help.

When we can binge a show we become despondent to long gaps in between answers. We want answers now. I can watch 18958 episodes of Law and Order with a single click why can't I know why Luke is in hiding or who Rey's parents are in .3 seconds with one click! We build theories and conjecture around them and because we can discuss and dissect them 24/7 rather than just when we are with friends, we take them much closer to heart now than before.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 9, 2018, Original Post Date: Jan 9, 2018 ---

The rebuilding and restructuring of the Jedi Order.
The fall out of Ren being humiliated by Luke and the death of Snoke (possible power struggle between Ren and Hux)
The survival of the Resistance with only Leia (but we know she won't be there).

Just because they aren't obvious things or overly dramatic, doesn't mean they aren't there or in need of oversimplification for the sake of attempted snark.

 

Hmmm. True. I think Leia not being there is the biggest issue. Nobody can help that, but Ep. IX really needed to be her dealing with Kylo Ren. The fact that they didn't change the movie in light of Carrie Fisher's passing is probably going to make the story feel a bit more contrived. That's what I can't help thinking for now, at least. We'll see.

 

Ultimately this is a film about Rey, Finn, and Kylo. Having detailed explanations of other characters would drag this film out and it wouldn't really add much to the story.

 

Exposition would have been helpful in regard to world building. We should have learned more about the Jedi, for instance, or how Snoke and Kylo may or may not be different from the Sith.

But in regards to stupid plot points, most of them are just stupid plot points: dumb ideas. The slow chase through space is stupid in the GFFA.

The problem is that Rian Johnson is an overrated hack of a writer.