The Force Awakens is a superior movie!

Love this video and YouTuber, man! Glad I'm not the only one. And he is absolutely right. An active protagonist is much better than a passive one.

 

I've said it from the beginning, TFA is better than R1. IMO characters are the most crucial part of a good movie. The characters of R1 were bad and boring.

 

Rey was mostly passive too. Overall RO is much better then TFA. Jyn wasn't a Mary Sue, and fortunately didn't have in-your-face "I'm a strong woman" moments.

I'd say the the Jyn -Casssian dynamic was much better than Rey-Finn; Cassian wasn't turned into a joke to empower Jyn. All the members of the team had a good part to play.

Plus it also had new locations unlike TFA. Also a cool space battle.

 

I guess i am more in the middle cause i love both SW films <3

 

Some people liked it, some not, that's how cinema works.

What I don't understand is the obsession to make other people think like we do.

 

Rey was totally a Mary Sue.

 

Of course Rey was a Mary Sue. She was perfect at EVERYTHING. Perfect fighter, perfect mechanic that was even better than Han, perfect scavenger, ect. She understood droids and Wookies, she self thought herself how to use the Force doing in one movie what it took Luke three movies to do and she was so overpowered that she even beat a dark Jedi who had been trained by both Luke and Snoke.

 

Actually, I was more thinking about people who hated it and spent time to discuss how bad it was and some of them went 3 times to the theater to see how bad it is.

I'm not sure I'm haunting boards of movies I didn't like.

I can't take a selfie, I'm not gonna say I would have done better than directors or photographers.

 

Well of course she is.. after all, the definition your using was created for Rey.. Ergo she is going to fit it.
So how does Disney fix the problem? Simple.

"Congratulations.. You're being rescued."

Nothing a little Ryona won't cure.

 

Why is it that a 20-year-old woman being good at things like flying and fixing mechanical things is problematic, but an 8-year-old slave boy building advanced jet-propelled vehicles and complex droids, piloting podracers and starfighters, destroying Federation ships from the inside and escaping unharmed is perfectly fine and acceptable?

And didn't Rey nearly get everyone killed by screwing up the fuses releasing the rathtars? So she isn't perfect.

 

Well, you bring up a good point. As much as the Landis gang wants to slap the word "trained" onto everything.. nobody really trained anakin to do this stuff. He got a brief rundown from Mr Boring the Pilot, but even he was impressed with Anakin's aptitude. And I should note Qui-Gon observed this and simply dismissed it as tell-tale signs of a missed Jedi prospect. He didn't bother with a blood test until he learned of the immaculate conception.

That said, the other side has a good point about Hollywood's general hesitation to display violence against a heroine outside of R rated films.

 

Aaaaah, the ever recurring Mary Sue argument. I never really addressed it here before, because thankfully it isn't being used often in the Cantina (thankfully), but now I'm going to do so. Ever since Max Landis threw these two words into the collective nerd consciousness, it managed to become the constant fuel of every bitter EU fanboy, Disney/JJ hater, misoginist or just your average internet hater. But does it hold its place as a well thought argument? I don't think so...

I've seen TFA around 10 times now, and even being fully aware of every criticism against the movie, Rey being a "Mary Sue" never really bothered me at all. Why? Because imo within the lore of SW and the context of the movie everything Rey did made (some) sense.
Characters being overpowered usually does annoy me, but imo Rey isn't overpowered, nor boring at all. Her backstory explains most of her abilities (because nowadays it has to be explained why a character in SW speaks foreign languages or why is he/she good with mechanical tools for some reason).
There are a lot of issues with TFA that bother me, but this dosen't.

"Self thought" lol. You mean self taught. I'm acutally surprised that someone brings this up here, on a forum where we usually think a bit deeper (or at least know SW better) about Star Wars than your Average Joe. Her perfoming a successful mindtrick on a stromtrooper means she knows how to use the Force, in your opinion? Because imo very certainly not. She merely perfored a mindtrick in a great need, not learned how to do so. Big difference. Since we know she has heard stories about the jedi before, she probably heard their legendary abilities as well. She's strong with the Force, she tried it, and did it. The luck of a prodigy. This dosen't mean at all that she can perfom it again in the future. But given the conditions she was able to. Is this really that unbeliveable? I don't think so...

Did it really take Luke three movies? Because from what I've seen Luke managed to successfully deflect the lazer from the training ball after like 5 seconds of training. He was also fighting against Darth Vader, the strongest force user in canon, after lifting rocks and doing flips for like a couple days with Yoda (who he never trainer lightsaber combat with, to add as well).

For some reason a portion of fans come to the conclusion that using the Force and becoming a jedi is similar to kung fu training. The more they practice, the better they inevitably become. I don't think it's that simple. I mean this is the Force, a mystical power that binds the galaxy together, not some kitchen skill. Honestly, I blame the prequels for this wrong approach. I mean in the PT Lucas made it seem like in order to become a jedi you must train from year 5 with a mini lightsaber. I think this contradicts with the OT's (and the similar TFA) approach.

Take Luke and Yoda for instance. Like I said, their training never even included a lightsaber. All they did was learning about emotions, control, fear, premonitions etc. Their skills with the lightsaber mattered the least (before the prequels ofc). SW is not space kung fu with wizards. It's (or at least was) much more. Did Luke win his fight against Vader in ep VI because of more training with the lightsaber? No. He won because he was ready emotionally, and Vader was the one who struggled... In the end all that mattered is who can gain control, and who is trained enough IN THE HEAD. Like Yoda said, control, control, you must learn control! In TFA Rey managed to gain control, Kylo Ren lost it. Rey won, simple as that. The duel was a fight between CHARACTERS and ideals, not a fight about who is over 9000 in space kung fu skills. Well, at least this is my interpretation.

 

Perfect.

Although I like to sum it up as:

If you readily accept that the Force can literally create a being and imbue it with powers such as Anakin's, and that Anakin, despite no training or knowledge can persist as an entity after death (Force Ghost), then it is wholly consistent that the Force may imbue another already tested and experienced individual with abilities at a time of need, such as Rey.