"The Force Awakens" (with SPOILERS)

I’m not writing it’s hard to believe. I am writing that, if that’s all it was all along, there wasn’t any need to have spent any time on it and the way it’s revealed is arbitrary. Ditto with the lightsaber Luke tosses aside. On rewatches, anything in TFA that relates to Rey’s “destiny” just gets fast forwarded.

I suspect it’s a lie, but if it isn’t, it doesn’t reflect well on the time wasted on it.

Movie was fine. Liked it.

 

I’m surprised that you and Typefitter think it was a lie, or, more accurately, both of you still think it’s a distinct possibility.

I will have to watch TFA again, but I don’t recall it spending a lot of time on Rey’s parentage. It shows a flashback to her as a little girl, on Jakku. It hints that she was abandoned, somehow, and waits for her parents to return. Ren’s reveal paid off exactly what was being set up in TFA. Rey was an orphan without a place in the universe, and she stumbled upon it when she found a home in the Resistance and the Jedi Order. It is an allegory for every nobody who realized she was a somebody, her life has meaning and value, often through religion, but not exclusively.

Rey has been working through abandonment issues for two movies, and now she comes to terms with them. Now she comes to understand that she isn’t defined by her parents’ choice. Her story is the story of millions of orphans or even emotionally abandoned children in our world.

And I have no problem with Ren knowing. Not hard to believe that he could build a dossier with First Order resources. And it’s not that she couldn’t have accomplished the same. She didn’t want to. It’s all there. There’s no lie.

 

Darth Vader was never intended to be Luke's father from the beginning. Luke and Leia were not siblings from the beginning. That changed after the original Star Wars.

Rey's origin can be changed.

 

That was a different time and totally different circumstances. They aren’t making it up as they go along this time.

Can Rey’s origin change? Yes. Would it be god awful storytelling? Yes. Will it? No.

At some point, again, audiences have to believe what you are telling them. Clever misdirection can work fine. This wouldn’t be a twist. It would be a blatant cheat. It’s absolutely not happening.

 

Oh, I think Rian Johnson absolutely changed some of the arc. Which is fine.

 

Johnson has already said Luke's ending point in the movie was his call, but he ran it by plenty of others before they actually filmed it.

 

I don't think it was research. I think he discovered it through his connection to her mind. She knew it and he was willing to go there even though she wasn't.

I agree that the question of Rey's family history pays off well in The Last Jedi. Didn't Maz tell her in Force Awakens that she needs to stop looking behind her and look forward for her place in the galaxy? In hindsight, isn't that a strong hint that Rey's parents don't matter to the story?

 

Saw it tonight, is Finn and Rey a love interest or just best friends?

 

Saw it over the weekend. Meh. For the first hour, I felt like it ranked down there with the horrible prequels, but it improved - marginally.

Can't even put my finger on what was so bad. I liked the one scene with all the red and the Rey-Ren connection, though I couldn't figure out why it would be happening. (I don't know how to use the spoiler button so will be vague.) I liked the Luke part, and the fun one-liners. Poe's "I'll hold" cracked me up. Was surprised at the two swear words; I don't recall any used before in SW. And where did Maz come from? I thought she blew up with everything else in TFA.

Laura Dern was awful. I liked what her character was supposed to be but oh God, she was painful to watch. And I saw that as a Laura Dern fan.

The Leia scene was so utterly stupid. I thought of Superman.

Mostly, unlike Empire or TFA, it didn't leave me waiting on the next movie with bated breath. It just seemed hollow at the end. Oh, a spark. YAWN.

Saw it in a small mom-and-pop theater. Not a huge place -- there were only five rows in the balcony - but packed. The only time I heard a peep from anyone was when Carrie Fisher's credit flashed on the screen at the very end, and it was just a mere murmur. I saw Coco the following night with maybe 15 people in another theater and there was far more audience reaction in that one.

 

That was an odd audience then. There were some strong reactions, including the laughs, at the show I saw.

The connection between Rey and Kylo was explained.

Maz's place was trashed, but not utterly destroyed. Remember, the resistance showed up and the First Order flew off with Rey.

I agree regarding the scene with Leia. I didn't care for it, either, but that was my only major complaint.

 

It was basically a kid's film, except with a few interesting ideas and the odd sexual tension between Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver.

I thought the big bleeding-into-real-life twist was going to be that RIdley and Felicity Jones (the star of Rogue One) are actually the same person. Compare.

 

Based on Lukes assessment of the force do midichlorians play any part ?