The release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi is fast approaching and even though Disney seems to be trying as hard as possible to wear us out on the franchise only three years into their “new Star Wars film every year” plan (is anyone actually looking forward to Solo?), it’s hard not to be excited for this one. After all, we’ll finally be seeing Mark Hamill’s proper return to the franchise, with his first speaking role as Luke Skywalker since 1983’s Return of the Jedi, and the film has a legit talent behind the lens with director Rian Johnson, who also wrote the story.
The Force Awakens had to shoulder enormous expectations and largely met those expectations in being a better film than any of George Lucas’ prequels. Still, now that we’ve had time for the hype to die down, it’s easier to look at J.J. Abrams’ film a bit more critically and even though it’s easy to like, it’s hard to deny that The Force Awakens has a number of issues holding it back from greatness. Fortunately, that film has already laid out the blueprint of what to do and what not to do with a new Star Wars film, so as long as The Last Jedi makes improvements in the following areas, it should have no problem in being a better film than The Force Awakens.
11. Give Captain Phasma Something To Do
In terms of appearance, it’s hard to think of a new character introduced in The Force Awakens who looked as cool as Captain Phasma. With her imposing stature and special chrome helmet, the stormtrooper commander was a big draw in the lead-up to the film’s release, as she looked like a tough customer you wouldn’t want to mess with. And then the film arrived, revealing Phasma to be one giant pushover with only a scant few lines of dialogue. Her most pivotal scene turned out to be one in which she’s easily overpowered by Han, Chewie, and Finn and thrown into a garbage compactor offscreen. Yes, the badass stormtrooper ended up being the butt of a joke that was just there to reference something from the original Star Wars.
An actress as talented as Gwendoline Christie deserved better than this and it looks like The Last Jedi is taking steps to rectify this mistake. Although her one-on-one clash with Finn takes up all of a few seconds in the trailer, that’s still more action than Phasma got to do in the entirety of The Force Awakens. John Boyega has even hinted that this fight will be a showstopper, tweeting that “If you’ever had a crappy boss … You’ll wanna see this fight …” We’ll have to wait for the final release to know for sure whether Captain Phasma finally gets her due, but it looks like The Last Jedi is well on its way to making her the breakout villain she should have been from the beginning.
http://makingstarwars.net/2015/12/star-wars-the-force-awakens-gwendoline-christie-discusses-captain-phasma/ Source: Making Star Wars