I have a question for both of you at the end of this .. but hear me out.
As a story telling vehicle many writers of film, stage, and book use characters, plot lines, story, scenes, etc from their favorite sources, be it book, film, friends. Whatever. Tarantino as an example.
What I learned in screenwriting class was when done consciously, the reasoning was that every detail was pre-filled, so it helped creatively to use, borrow, steal. It's very common. In any medium. Robert Jordan wrote a whole series of books based solely on this method. I don't know if, it, the technique, method, has a name. Goat?
Of course it's also done subconsciously - because we only know how to play what we've already heard.
Star Wars the original was also written in this manner. IV especially. that's why IV was such a great story, even if it was weaker film. it's thee story, using regurgitated material from multiple, unrelated, sources superimposed on Campbell's path and set in space.
Okay, in IV, we have a prewritten path that has been used countless times. On top of that was a character from Once Upon a Time in the West, mixed with a Samurai Warlord. A young King Arthur. Merlin mixed with a Monk. With scenes like the trench run borrowed from a WW2 movie about British dambusters, R2 and C3P0 as the peasants in Hidden Fortress, etc etc etc etc ...
So, that, to me is okay. Part of normal creative process.
In this movie we have characters from Star Wars books superimposed on top of Star Wars IV. I get what he did, I really do. I just don't like it. Do you? It's supposed to be the next in a series. It would be comparable to Martin releasing his next book and having characters from Dunk and Egg at the Blue (not Red) Wedding.
Also, credit or mention to/of the original writers would be, ugh, nice. That was weak.
As a film, this was the best of the whole series. It's better than V. Technically. Best acting by far. Cinematography Kurosawa would like. Art design was perfect. Except the one CGI character. The story is really good too, as good as IV, because well, it was good the first time I saw it, but it truly is a tracing.
