I don’t know what it is, maybe I’m tired of all the time I spent defending TFA, but I honestly don’t even think I can bother with trying to respond to a lot of these negative reviews. Maybe it’s the volume, maybe I’m just shocked that there’s even such an outcry to begin with. Our takes on the film are just so different that I honestly don’t know how to bridge that gap, besides just hoping these people see the movie again and get out of it what I, and many others, did. It’s really something.
I really liked TFA, and it’s partly for this reason, that I’m not reaaly happy with RJ rebooting much of JJ’s setups. All the mystery surrounding Rey and Snoke has turned to dust. There’s a lot of twists and turns, and some shocks thrown in the mix, but ultimately I feel both Rey and Kylo are still in the same place they were at the end of TFA. Rey’s still the perfect hero, and Kylo’s still a big evil child.
See this is exactly the kind of take that I just can’t reconcile with my own.
First of all, I thought it was a perfect follow up to TFA in those regards. Snoke was only a big mystery because fans proposed endless theories - there’s nothing in the film itself that invites such rampant speculation. Rey’s parents reveal is honestly the only thing that made sense, and is a conclusion I landed on after a few viewings of TFA (not just that, thematically it’s so much better than any alternative).
Well I disagree. Rey was able to do things in TFA that previously required a lot of training, a trend that continues in this film. That in my view requires some sort of explanation, and just being the child of some nobody’s doesn’t cut it for me.
They’ve also completely rebooted the Empire vs rebels scenario, with the Resistance now even being called rebels. Snoke was the only character with some history beyond the FO, and might have provided motivations that separates the FO from the Empire, but that’s all gone by the wayside. There are now only new faces part of an organisation without much of a history or an identity. It’s this sense of history and hidden layers that made Star Wars appealing to me, but now all the history and layers have been peeled away.