This is a spoiler thread now. No need to use tags.
Han Solo's death was sad because it was the death of Han Solo, the pop culture icon. It was sad because of what happened, but this actual movie didn't do much to make us care. They gave it a crack with him father-figuring Rey, but honestly with the intense pace of the movie that was grasping at straws from the start.
The criticism of not caring when the planets blew up is good. That was really dumb and a big off-putting moment for lots of people. I feel like that scene was just rushed in for extra drama and that it was never supposed to actually fire. Either that, or it was going to be a bigger part of the trilogy, which is what I called when I saw there was a new death start because I thought they would do more than rehash like that.
You can't excuse the holes in this movie because it's part of a trilogy. A good movie can leave you with questions, but this movie doesn't do it in a meaningful way. The conclusion did nothing for the development of the characters, and there's no reason for this movie to not have a good ending. Rey fighting Ren was an example of exactly the same problem as Han's death - when she pulls the lightsaber to herself we get excited because that's a Jedi thing. When she force mind controls that stormtrooper for no established reason it's exciting because that's what Jedi do! Both of those things could have had significance to her character, but they don't because they were lazy and just played what the audience knows and has seen before for excitement.
Now, I'm not saying that's a a bad thing in a movie with "Episode 7" in the title, but that's not a good excuse either. It just relies on everyone loving Star Wars too much.
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