After mulling over it some more, my view this film inches even more towards disappointment. The main crux for me all comes down to Luke and Kylo’s past. Okay so, Vader has tortured Leia, has blown up Leia’s home planet, has killed many of his fellow Rebel friends, has tortured Han and sent to Jabba’s, has sliced Luke’s hand off, etc. Vader has done some really horrible and twisted deeds, and Luke’s idealism never faltered, even when he was being electrocuted by the Emperor. "Father please!"
Luke’s unwavering determination and faith in his father to have the capacity to turn to the light was what finally convinced Vader to overthrow his master.
NOW…
An older, supposed wiser, Luke wants to murder his nephew in his sleep because he ‘felt’ some darkness in Kylo’s mind?? This isn’t even some random padawaan; his own family! Leia’s and Han’s! How the hell was he going to rationalize this act of murder to them?? Not without lying you couldn’t! I’m not even convinced or shown how Kylo was an issue in Luke’s academy prior to scary Luke the executioner shows up at Kylo’s bedside.
I mean, how backwards is it to consider now that of all people, HAN SOLO, was the one that held onto the idea that his son was still there? I just don’t think Luke was written correctly. The ‘correct’ Luke would do anything, I mean anything, to figure out how to redeem Kylo. Fine, Luke goes into Exile, and studies the teachings of the Force even further during this time. But no, Luke does nothing for all these years. You can still have an interesting element of how legends aren’t always great, just from the fact alone that he failed to train Kylo properly, but oh gosh, it doesn’t have to go against his character!
Due to this, I really think almost everything in TLJ starts to fall apart at the seams. TFA, though criticize for legitimate reasons, was overall received with praise. So it almost feels like a slap in face for the people like me that stood behind TFA. I truly thought the new trilogy was heading into something interesting, and even if it was old-retreads, I could at the very least enjoy seeing these new characters, like Rey, develop. But as I mentioned in another post, it doesn’t really feel like any of these main characters moved forward. The second act should be a smaller contained movie that pushes the characters to suffering and agony until they rise stronger than before with new wisdom; here our characters, especially apparent in Finn’s arc, they basically struggle with pretty much the same issues they had in TFA. Why?