My hope for VIII's ending is that not only should it be a balance of satisfying and open ended, but that it finally locks-in the new crew (VIII newcomers included like Tran perhaps) as the primary "family" to focus on from here on out. I was already hoping they do that with VII and as much as I liked that film, I have to agree with Boco that the ending was a helluva pisser.
I'm thinking something like ending of JJ's first Star Trek or Guardians of the Galaxy (fuck, it is so weird how these specific films are related to SW by certain degrees). They nailed down their new crew together by the end and set-up a "Well...where to?" scenario. Though, if they do that, I hope they find some other way than a Millenium Falcon flyaway shot because that kind of ending shot is getting repetitive in any sci-fi at this point.
"Well... where to?" Is far more Star Wars-like. I want a sense of finality for the last film and a sense that more is yet to come... but I don't want to be dragged to the door of the sequel with an "on the next episode of Star Wars..." style teaser.
I think it has been pretty faithful to the format story-wise. Only thing that was very different was that it was a moving camera shot as opposed to a still one.
I think it factually wasn't...
If TFA was truly faithful to the format of a Star Wars trilogy opener, it would have ended at a celebration sequence honouring the core heroes.
Now, I don't need that specific level of slavish devotion at all. But clearly both Episode IV and Episode I ended with a sense that this story was completed, worth celebrating, and didn't directly lay out the opening of the next sequel with a kind of teaser. I'd have appreciated a more celebratory and self-contained end to TFA.
Even Episode V and II, which were setting up sequels, showed the darker state of the heroes' position. But it didn't actually drag them to Jabba's palace or the ship that Palpatine was kidnapped on and say "to be continued in a few years!"
