DrDre, one could argue that the Force was never all about lifting rocks and stuff.
[Ben Kenobi said:]
Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.
[Luke Skywalker said:]
The Force is not a power you have. It’s not about lifting rocks. It’s the energy between all things, a tension, a balance, that binds the universe together.
The entire X-wing moves majestically, surely, toward the shore. Yoda
stands on a tree root and guides the fighter carefully down toward the
beach.Luke stares in astonishment as the fighter settles down onto the shore.
He walks toward Yoda.LUKE I don't... I don't believe it. YODA That is why you fail.If Rey wasn’t pretty confident with her abilities, we’d have Luke’s arc again. All I want, as the viewer, is the most interesting/fun story possible with characters I enjoy watching. The sequels so far have given me this.
The trouble is that we might all agree the Force isn’t about lifting rocks. But a bunch of us understand the Force, contrivance though it is, as it was portrayed in the OT, where supernatural abilities weren’t necessarily important because they were hard-earned, but were hard-earned. Luke’s lesson in the cave or resisting temptation were always more important.
In some ways, the ST portrayal makes the Force more about the amazing abilities because of how much more in your face it all is.
It’s the same incoherence we find in other areas of the film, where the film shows one thing but purports to tell something else. I don’t find that terribly clever or good story-telling.