Five Worst Star Wars Sequences and Scenes
1) Reintroduction of Han Solo in TFA: After a very promising initial sequence marred only by some questionable Cobra Commander style dysfunctionality by the antagonists, the real turning point of 'The Force Awakens' is the reintroduction of Solo beginning with - "Chewie, we're home." and ending with his reunion with Leia. While the sequence itself is OK aside from a couple of digressions, the problem with the sequence is it's implication that Han Solo has since the time we last saw him at the end of RotJ has become a failure, returning to his old dysfunctional selfish criminal behavior and having abandoned all his loves, duties, and responsibilities. This becomes the first of a series of slanders against the characters of the protagonists that of the original trilogy that collectively disestablishes all of their characters and renders the original trilogy meaningless, since now none of the characters has actually had a meaningful character arc or accomplished any of the things that they set out to do. In effect, it resets the story to the place it was at the beginning of 'A New Hope'. It's bad enough when a sequel doesn't live up to the original work, but it's unforgivable when a sequel actually destroys the classic work it is based on.
2) Reintroduction of Leia Organa in TFA: Similar to the reintroduction of Han, the reintroduction of Leia destroys the character who was so beloved in the original trilogy. While the scene itself is marked mainly by how little Leia is given to do in it or the film she appears in, the implications of the scene are appalling both in their blatant sexism and their disrespect to the original source material. The entire context of 'TFA' is a search for the "Galaxy's greatest warrior", Luke Skywalker. But at no point does anyone, villain or hero stop and say, "Wait a minute. What about the girl? Isn't Leia a Skywalker too? Isn't she just as powerful of a force user as Luke? Does Luke himself tell the audience that Leia is his equal and tell her prophetically that she will be? So how it is that Leia doesn't have a light saber at this point? How is it that she isn't perceived as the Galaxy's greatest warrior? I mean, it would make a bit of sense if Luke had run off and abandoned his responsibilities for some reason. But Leia was always stronger than that. So why is Leia just a general in some ragtag army now? Again, this reboots the series back to the place it was at the beginning of a 'A New Hope', and simultaneously slanders her character for no obvious reason other than the character's gender.
It was at this point that watching TFA I became fuming angry with the direction of the series. A lot of people are citing the scene in TLJ where Leia uses force powers to fly through space, but the problem with that scene is rooted in the problems introduced in TFA. Yes, the scene is staged very badly and I could easily describe how to stage this scene in a way that it wouldn't have looked like Mary Poppins, but the main problem with the scene is how unearned it is. If we'd been introduced to Leia the Jedi Master in TFA, even the badly staged version of this scene we got would have not been so jarring. For example, had Leia and not Rey defeated Kylo Ren in TFA, then Leia's prowess as a force user would be both explained prior to this scene AND we wouldn't have the problem of Rey as unearned Mary Sue who as an untrained force user defeats a trained one. Plus, the confrontation between mother and son would have been much more dramatic than the scene we did get.
3) Reintroduction of Luke Skywalker in TLJ: I don't think this one requires much in the way of explanation, as the initial sequence is cringy in a lot of ways and already much derided. But the real problem with this scene is the same as the other ones - this is not the character we left when we finished RotJ and this character is a betrayal of everything he believed at the end of that movie. It resets the story back to the beginning having undermined the classic trilogy. All the problems in TLJ - it's slander of the characters, the lack of logic in the story line, the lack of story focus, the highly telegraphed 'twists', the hoop jumping to obtain unearned plot points - are apparent from the viewing of TFA. There are some that are like TLJ was departure from the good movie that TFA was, and I'm like, "Did you pay attention to TFA?"
4) Introduction of Jar Jar Binks in TPM: Again, I don't think this one requires much in the way of explanation, as the character is one of the most hated in the history of cinema, and the introduction sequence from the collision and "mesa so sorry" all the way to Jar Jar at the dinner table (every scene he is given something to do) is just incredibly cringy and inadvertently low key racist in an old school, "look how funny they talk sort of way". The big problem with the character compared to comparable characters like R2D2, C3P0 or Chewbacca which are frequently comic relief sidekicks, is that unlike those three characters we are never given any indication that Jar Jar is in any fashion useful and not just a bumbling idiot. R2D2, C3P0, and Chewbacca are highly competent characters who contribute to the party success. They have a lot of ranks in something that other members of the party lack. Notably, in addition to his "six million forms of communication" C3P0 has higher ranks in Bluff and Diplomacy than any other party member. R2D2 repeatedly saves the day through clearheaded competent action. Jar Jar is just embarrassing, stays embarrassing, and is so critical to the success of evil that some have proposed he'd make a better twist villain than sidekick. It tells you a lot about a character if people think revealing that they were actually a diabolical mastermind only faking incompetency would improve them.
There are so many other possible choices here that I think I should list some runners up:
Surviving resistance celebrates at the end of TLJ despite having experienced 99% causalities. Normal people would have PTSD at this point, and anyone that isn't a sociopath should be in a state of grief driven shock.
Qui-Gun Jinns negotiations for the star ship part, TPM. What?
Flirtation "falling in love sequence" between Anakin and Padme, AotC. Just so badly written even good actors can do nothing with it.
"I sense much fear in him", Yoda's speech at the end of TPM. What? This kid has never showed the slightest fear of anything the entire movie. Anger issues, sure. But kid's afraid of nothing.
The entire Casino sequence in TLJ.
"Nooooooo."
Yet Another Death Star reveal in TFA. Also the cringe inducing forking planet destroying beam.
The opening sequence of TLJ where they go full blown Cobra Commander with General Hux. Also the ludicrously stupid "Bomber" sequence of that same battle.
The conversation between Leia and Holdo in which they treat an insubordinate commander as if he was just a spoiled willful child. One of many cases in the script where didactic attempts to portray feminine strength results only in far worse sexism on screen than existed in the original movies. Also, Holdo's unexplained refusal to reveal the plan to anyone. Also, the sheer stupidity of that plan she was concealing. Again, all of this has to do with changes to the original script intended to convey one thing, that actually did the opposite of its stated intention.
The jump to hyperspace ramming attack which single handedly undermines all of the conceits of the series fiction in a moment. Again, the worst thing a sequel can do is not be bad. The worst thing a sequel can do is make what was once good bad. (See also 'Ender's Shadow' or Tolkien's attempts to rewrite his cosmology late in life or the Dune sequels, or even Lucas's own tampering with his classics in 'special edition' rereleases).
The extended version of the Max Rebo musical sequence in RotJ special edition.
And I could go on and on, but for #5...
#5: Rose prevents Finn from sacrificing his life to save his friends: Out of context with no other considerations involved, this is the dumbiest sequence in all of Star Wars films and could just about rival the Star Wars Christmas special for cringe inducement. Not only is there again the underlying sexism involved, in as much as Rose seems perfectly willing to let her other fellow soldiers get themselves killed, but not this boy, the entire sequence makes absolutely no sense in terms of Rose's logic, Rose's supposed character, or Finn's character, or the situation at hand. One of the single dumbest scenes in all of cinema, and so bad that it just demands parody but is perhaps so stupid it is beyond parody.
