DrDre said:
There are many twists and turns, which were refreshing, but what are we really left with at the end? The New Republic is completely erased from existence at the start of the film, and we end up with a few dozen rebels as they are now once again called in a single ship having to defeat the FO, who now controls the entire galaxy. Talk about bad odds.
But this was the entire point of the story. The rebels left, are completely fucked. Completely and utterly lost. It is just like any mid-point in a trilogy; their greatest challenges, their greatest struggles - and finding new hope where old hope is lost, and finding strength and friendship in one self and others. How is this an issue? How is this bad for the story? It is a natural and completely realistic progression of the story, and continuation of TFA.
Snoke became a plot device, only to be replaced by his incapable luitenant. Let’s not forget Kylo got his *** handed to him, and since this film directly follows TFA, and his training has not been completed, our main antagonist for episode IX remains just a boy in a mask (only his helmet is now too big), as Snoke called him, a pretender to the throne.
This too, is the point. How is this an issue? It parallels all story we ever know (how many hasn’t lost power to other who wanted their place?, including Star Wars mythos (always two there are, and one to take the other’s place). Snoke literally became a Sith when he did this. He did the exact same thing that Vader did to the Emperor - except for the redemption, which he has not found yet. The entire thing that makes Kylo Ren a character on his own, is that he always had Vader on his shoulders to bear - and Snoke made that perfectly clear. By killing Snoke, Kylo Ren freed himself of this - which took such a toll on him that he saw it as a curse, as something holding him back and poisoning him from the inside, clouding his powers and his motives. Snoke expected him to become Vader - but he couldn’t. Because he wasn’t. He was a boy betrayed by his friend, uncle and Master, and exploited by an old, force-sensitive alien man that only wanted him for his blood. He freed himself from the claws of Luke and Snoke and everything that held him back in The Force Awakens, which is one of the many reasons Rey managed to hurt him so bad he couldn’t believe it himself.
So no? You completely missed the entire story, the entire plot. Before Kylo killed Snoke he was a pretender in a mask. When he killed Snoke and when he confronted Luke, he was the new Leader of the First Order - the true Kylo Ren, a young man betrayed by his biggest role model - the legend Luke Skywalker, his uncle. He lives for his own justice - killing the past, making his own future, with no Vader on his shoulders. A man who follows his own moral compass and not the one others tell him to. His own Master.
However, things are much worse on the side of the good. Whereas Luke took three films and the trials of Job to finally become a Jedi, Rey is now on her way to Jedi Knighthood after just three lessons. Three lessons reluctantly given by Luke are apparently enough for him to pass on the batton, and then just die. We got some Jedi history, which is nice, but apparently Yoda feels Rey and her three lessons worth of Jedi training are already more important than the collected wisdom of the Jedi masters of old. This attitude perfectly encapsulates this film.
Here there is much more room for juicy discussion. This is where we go from your opinions being based on lack of understanding, and over to the more plausible likes or dislikes of the movie that we all have.
What Luke did doesn’t matter for what Rey does. I understand that you’d like more training. That you’d like a Jedi Padawan type of path, just as Luke before her. But that wasn’t this story. This story was about force sensitivty, and how the Jedi were self-obsessed, ignorant fools - worshipping their rules and morals so highly that they surpressed their own humanity, causing their downfall. How the path for new hope and a new future for the Jedi was for the last one to die, for others to be born and do it right. Rey was this person.
Her training wasn’t necessary, because she shouldn’t follow the way of Luke or the Old Republic on Coruscant. She would need to forge her own path and that of others. It isn’t the training that makes the Jedi - it is learning from the Masters and their faults, which is the best way to learn for those who come after. Yoda literally spelt this out. And this person, is Rey. Her training isn’t important. Her understanding is, to forge her own path and that of others - to bring hope back in the Galaxy. In other words, Luke’s death and Rey’s understanding is the spark of fire that will burn the First Order down.
Your review is unfair, because so many points are based on a complete lack of understanding. This movie needs more than one viewing.
