I keep seeing that as a complaint. It seemed like such an intentional choice to me - the fact Rey keeps becoming more capable and powerful is (imo) supposed to be a WTF?! moment each time; instead of saying "that's impossible" I was thinking "whoa there's something we don't know about her". Maybe that is me starry-eyed selectively glossing over something to better like the material, but that was my honest reaction first time around.

Overall, plot hole or not, I like that we have a hero who is confident and capable but lonely, and a villain who is fractured and unsure (even moreso now?) but has a whole gang of Knight pals. Its an uncommon plot device and is almost a complete reversal from Luke and Vader. It's even more interesting if you consider Rey falling to the Dark Side at some point...

Ultimately when you write for sequels there's always issues - there's never an 'ending' to everything.

Sigh. I'm clearly outnumbered here. I can't speak for the writer of that article but I am huge Sci Fi, especially military Sci Fi, fan. I've read so many books and seen so many movies that I understand everything can't be scrutinized or to just relax and enjoy the story. He had forty points. Cherry picking his weakest ones but ignoring some others that may raise even the biggest homer's eyebrow is asinine.

But

If you don't think it's annoyingly convenient that General Han Solo has his ship stolen, somehow, and then wandering the galaxy just happens to come across it as our heroes expertly out maneuvered several tie fighters in a ship described as unable to even fly then fine.

This makes the THIRD huge bad guy installation to be destroyed since episode four. Three out of four movies had this as the climax. Ok fine.

Kylo, though injured by Chewbacca crossbow bolt that I guess he didn't sense but easily stopped Poe's early in the film, got his ass kicked by a baby in the force and a trash man storm trooper and then the earth split them apart to allow his escape. How convenient. Oh and why the hell is Han constantly amazed at Chewie's weapon?!? He's seen it fire during countless adventures hasn't he? Oh sorry, this is some modified weapon we weren't told about but must infer that is a new thing.

So there's a Republic and a Rebellion? A Rebellion from the Republic? Don't know, guess we'll hope almost two years from now it's explained

I feel like I'm repeating myself. Going round and round with other movie goings who don't have the answers either is pointless. I liked the film but felt it jumped too far ahead, that it's pacing was way off, and had several areas where writers said, F logic, it's Star Wars. I don't like a ton of holes in my movies. One of the things I really liked about episodes 1-3 is it filled in a lot of the references made in the originals. Not perfect at all and neither is episode 7 and I'm guilty of having way too high of expectations.

Dude its the Force, working in strange ways!

He had just killed his Dad, maybe a bit pre-occupied???

You are 100% Correct on that.

These are the types of complaints I still can't relate to. The juxtaposition of the very two scenes you are complaining about are 100% intentional imo, and work well for me.

I thought it was obvious that his powers clearly derive from his focussed (ie: unnatural) suppression of emotion and feeling. In the opening of the film he is unstoppable and Vader-esque, by the end after he's been foiled and called out 2-3 times and finally been forced to murder his father, he's an emotional wreck and can't get his shit together. We see him become weaker as the film progresses due to his emotions becoming uncontrolled.

I think this is a cool character development, framed in a very traditional narrative mechanism where in the opening we see a scene play out one way and in the conclusion it plays out differently to demonstrate character growth. USUALLY this is done with the hero failing/struggling early on and succeeding later, but in this case instead of growth we see someone devolve and lose what makes them powerful.

Or I'm drinking too much rum and egg nog at work....

Actually there is a slight reference to this, Rey shoots at Kylo Ren during the woods encounter and he makes an off the cuff remark about her shooting first. He says something to the effect of "Why would you try to kill me without even knowing me....you shot first" I can't remember exactly the text but I think its a wink towards that whole debacle.

Its explained that the Republic doesn't want another war, so they have retired the war machine. Leia and her "Resistance Fighters" are a small elite company made up of Ackbar's former unit. They are acting outside of the "Law" this is why their numbers are small and they are hiding out on that base that looked like Yavin. I'll admit they didn't really explain this well in the movie however it is explained much better in the Novelization.

I just realized that I've been almost entirely negative in these threads so here's some positives:

I LOVED seeing the ruins of Star Destroyers and Rebel fighters scattered on the planet like a graveyard of old battles.

Anything X-Wing related gets me super geeked up. I have more interest in a Rogue One movie than even Episode 8 at this point. So I loved seeing the "Rebellion" coming low off the water to push back the "New Order" division. While I would have liked to have seen more X-Wings or other type of fighters or even Tie Interceptors and Tie Bonbers in the final assault, it was great fun watching the dog fights and turrets going off.

I enjoyed seeing something resembling a sword fight with light sabers instead of Yoda flipping everywhere.

I'm glad they kept the CGI to a lesser level than the prequels.

Rey was cute

Everyone is forgetting vader went good at the end of return of the jedi, so vader's helmet /life force would be pushing kylo to the lights side.

Some good points. Yes there would be Generals/Admirals with considerable ships still under their command who would try to fill the vacuum left after the Emperors death.

I am definitely going to check out the novelization

They didn't do a great job conveying the Republic/Resistance/Empire/First Order relationships. There's probably not too much exciting material there but another minute or two on it all wouldn't have hurt. Likely they were terrified to even mention politics and regimes after the prequels talked about trade routes, chancellors, and senators for so long...

I didn't fully appreciate it on my only viewing, but the First Order destroyed the New Republic capital Hosnian Prime (and thus the Senate) with the Starkiller weapon when they destroyed the Hosnian System. They didn't do a great job on impressing on the fact that they had just lost the modern version of Coruscant, although I thought the scene itself was wonderfully tragic.

Again, in at least the novelization, Kylo Ren and Snoke's first talk goes into more detail talking about how A lifetimes worth of "Good" Work being Evil went to waste in a split second, do to Vadar allowing Sentiment getting in the way causing him to lapse into the light for a brief moment. Snoke then drills Kylo about will you do the same, which later we find out he does not as he kills Han.

I don't think Ren is conjuring up a Force Ghost, more alone the lines of just using the Helmet as a reminder of that's who he wants to be.

Ray is definitely Luke's daughter and her mother is also strong with the force (whoever she is) that's how she kicked rens ass

I wish you'd stop mentioning the novelization - if you need to refer to a book to explain things in the movie, the movie failed.

Yep it failed but I've had a lot of enjoyment reading books that movies were based on or books based on the screen play.

Hell I enjoyed the radio performance of A New Hope immensely

I am close to buying the whole XWing series and reading it all over again.

And please, if you enjoy Star Wars, check out I, Jedi

The reason I've brought it up is because Its fresh in my mind. I watched the movie 1 time after being up for 42 hours straight so I don't remember it 100% clearly. I just finished the Novel so in my mind its hard to remember if something was in the movie. And I like reading the books. The book for ep. 3 came out 2 weeks before the movie, I finished it and it was easier to understand that movie as well.

I am sorry you didn't enjoy the movie and think that is was a failure. I can't wait to see it for a second time and with having read the book, I can fill in the gaps if they exist or use the imagery to support what you feel is missing.

Not to go down that rabbit hole but that's sounds like religion, doesn't it?

FYI- I'm as nonreligious as you can get

Can't explain it? Doesn't make sense? It doesn't have to!

Box Office: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Shreds Records With $238 Million Debut

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS SMASHES ALL-TIME OPENING WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

All Critics | Top Critics
TOMATOMETER

95%
Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 293
Fresh: 277
Rotten: 16

Did you have a problem in Ep. 4 when in all the Galaxy Vadar just happened to sack Leia's Cruser just outside of Tatoonie where his son Luke was living?

or in Ep. 5 the Hoth System just happens to be within Limping distance of Han's old friend / former owner of the Falcon (which happens to be the broken ship than needs fixed by Said former owner), Lando Carlarission's new Mining colony?

or in Ep. 5 when Luke crashes onto Dagoba out of a huge world, he happens to crash into Yoda's house?

Ect. Ect. Ect.

The Force ....the Jedi, The Dark Side (Including sub factions like Darth's/Sith's and Ren's) has always been very religious in nature.

BTW, I am also an atheist.

I hear ya. I've just deleted like two snide comments about masses/sheep/dummies.

I'll say this, I'm glad most of you are able to talk and debate about the movie and its merits. My brother got annoyed at me after the movie as I began critiquing it and was a jerk about it. Prob all the comments I was making under my breath

What's so funny is I'm usually the guy who find the good in every movie, who enjoys hokey or heavily bashed movies and here I am finding faults with Star Wars, one of my most favorite genres.

It's prob the asshole in me that wants to rebel against everything so if everyone like the movie, I will go against popular opinion (Avatar was just ok, I've only seen it once and that was in theaters but made a ton of money)

You Star Wars nerds are making us pinball nerds look pretty effin sexy right about now. Keep up the good work Trekkies !

I agree.

I might be one of the few that hopes that Rey is Luke's daughter. It would be a swipe at the prequels stupid idea at celibate Jedi. I also hope they use Mara Jade as Rey's mother but if they do they'll keep the idea but change the name.

Touché!!!! Seems like the Galaxy ain't as big as we thought.

Haha you're welcome fucker

If you like that you'll love this.

I hope they shoot Solo's coffin out of the Enterprise like they did with his father Spock.

What happened after WWI? Did Germany just disappear after their defeat? No, they were pushed back into their borders where they started to rebuild. Then some guy comes along and starts getting everyone fired up about how great Germany can be again and next thing you know Poland falls.

Hence the next movie "the search for Luke"

Whales from the Dark Side.

Yes

I just watched Return of The Jedi and Luke force choked guards at Java's when he first came in. The DVD version I have was bought in 1999 or so from Fee-Bay. Turns out it was a China rip from Laser Disc.

My thoughts on how I would have modified the story

EPISODE vii PinPatch's story

The story should have been the search for Rey the Super Jedi.

I would have made the First order take over the republic like the Nazis did through politics, this would seriously only require 2 - 3 minutes total time to do so. Hence Rebel Alliance has something to rebel against.
Luke even though in hiding after his Academy fail contacted the resistance when he saw things were going bad in regards with The First order.
Luke either hid the girl on the rubbish tip planet after his Jedi academy failed, or could feel it in the force where she was.
Either Kylo Ren feels the same thing or maybe an intercept maybe bb8 is captured or retrieved from a downed x wing and they find out about search for girl.
The resistance contact hans solo in order to get to the girl before The First Order does, only one they can trust fastest ship etc
Luke too important to go stays on Aldamar
At least the old gang could reunite for one scene at least.
Forget the BS of the light saber being in a shitty box under a bar.
Movie then becomes a race to get to the girl.
Meantime girl realises a bounty on her head so has to fight off other scavengers etc
Various fights over different planets, rebel alliance/millenium falcon v The First order
Poe can still be captured and freed by Finn as in the movie.
Starkiller then is aiming at JUKKU, resistance through the help of Finn and Poe DISABLE the starkiller so it can't fire, not DESTROY it.
They grab Rey off the planet and whilst escaping a star destroyer captures millenium falcon. (maybe some ground fire stuffs up the hyperdrive etc) This enables kylo ren to kill Hans Solo. Giving enough time for everyone else to escape, maybe daring raid by Poe??
Last scene is the crew disembarking millenium falcon or commandeered tie bomber minus hans solo or carrying han solo's body.

I wrote this in about 30 minutes, keep it in mind when you rip it to shreds

FLAME ON

I hate when movies don't make sense and or have one too many coincidences.

I don't quite get your point

My point is that the force powers were subtle in the original trilogy so they kinda faded into the back of your mind during a large conflict, but have gradually escalated since then to become extreme combat devices so the question of "why didn't they just force push/pull/choke/lightning/throw and end the fight" is becoming more and more relevant.

This is literally the path of the Empire in Ep 1-3

I agree it doesn't bail the movie out but this isn't a trial - its not like it's "inadmissible evidence".

If the novel adds or modifies some context to the film I don't mind hearing about it even if the end result is "why didn't they say that in the movie". For instance, the lack of exposition on the Resistance/Republic stuff was poorly handled in the film - it doesn't mean the novel CAN'T be used to understand it even if it shouldn't need to be used if the film did a better job with the material. And again it's not like in Ep 8-9 they won't be in the same universe of New Republic/Resistance/First Order where the viewer will likely learn more, and the book information will remain relevant.

The old novelizations of Ep 4-6 for instance are a pretty fun read and discussion alongside the films too even if they aren't canonical

Mesa be a liking episode one, two and three more. The Christmas holiday special even. I was underwelmed and found myself with heavy eyelids. Sorry I can't see why most everyone was giving it good reviews. It was Not the movie I was hoping for at all.

Well you see...........

yeah, I've got no response for that.....if you're that far gone there is no bringing you back to the light.

Episode 3 has some good aspects but I thought that whole duel was so over the top it bordered on comedy, and then the end of it was a nonsense Sun Tzu military higher ground reference we never had heard of (or heard of since) and a slash. Ironically the opposite end occurred in Ep 1 where Maul has the higher ground (even moreso) and Kenobi jumps over him and bzzzt one slash. That duel was infinitely better but also ended poorly...

If the Bad Guy can stop a laser bolt in mid air and put his hand out and throw people around, why does he even need to be in a sword battle?

Cuz they're frikin' light sabers!

(and it's tradition)

Yep because bad guys are all about tradition and honor and codes.....

I invoke the right of parlay!

(wait....wrong bad guys/movies)

Exactly the types of questions that are indeed becoming harder and harder to swallow (in many movies frankly - this isn't isolated to Star Wars). See:

You can see this escalation of villain powers in most modern movies. The villains have to be ultra powerful to be compelling threats, but then don't exercise their powers when they 'should' in the eyes of a logical audience. The Avengers is for sure on the path towards the ultimate suspension of disbelief (imo) - Thanos is theoretically going to wield a weapon that wipes out half the universe in the comics - even if they dial that power back theres no way they will avoid a "why didn't he just ______ and win?" situation.

It's basically the James Bond villain thing at an extreme scale - if they just shot him in the head instead of coming up with elaborate schemes, he'd be dead and the baddies would take over the world. Villains are scary because they have a "win button" but then won't press it when they should.

The Sith were