Some additional thoughts on the movie:
I’ve heard this view that Kylo Ren is using typical abuser tactics to try to lure Rey into his reach. He tells her that nobody else cares about her but him; that her parents were poor nobodies who threw her on Jakku without care for her. The truth actually lies somewhere in between. Yes, Rey’s parents were nobody special, but they were paupers unable to retrieve her after, say, a kidnapping.
This movie really harps on the “true from a certain point of view” Ben says in ROTJ. Both Ren and Rey are right about each other, but only from a certain point of view. Luke’s and Ren’s interpretations of Kylo’s turn were both right from a certain point of view, but it is only at the end that we get the full truth. You can even see the theme again in the point I described above.
People complain about how much TLJ subverted TFA, but they fail to realize that’s the point of a middle movie; a sequel. The best sequels turn the previous movie on its head and leaves it spinning. Let’s use Empire, the rare sequel that’s better than its predecessor, as a case for this theory. Star Wars starts on a desert planet; Empire starts on an ice planet. Luke is ascendent at the end of SW; he’s despondent at the end of Empire. Ben lied about Luke’s parents. ESB’s full of subversion. That’s what makes it a great movie.
I think one of the reasons I really liked this film is that it introduced new ideas and interpretations on a great many things, something I don’t think TFA really did. TLJ’s flat-out creativity and boldness made me love it. It chose not to play it safe. I can’t wait to re-watch it soon. As one person said earlier in the thread, it is truly a film that has balls.
Also, the horse race was totally prequel-esque and completely unnecessary.
Turning the herd loose to create confusion and escape the bad guys is a movie western trope as old as the hills. You can’t pin that one on the prequels. 😉