The force repeats

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2020)

For this movie, lets start by addressing the elephant in the room right away, the fact that this is almost a clone of A New Hope. Yes, I noticed this watching it the first time around, as I'm sure most people did. But you know what, it kept things interesting enough that I was able to overlook that. I loved Poe's character as the snarky but lovable badass rebel. I was really intrigued by Finn being a defective stormtrooper. And Kylo Ren made an awesome introduction as the villain, who was the angry, emotional beast compared to Vader being a cool, unfeeling monster. Of course, Vader will always be number one, but Kylo was really cool. I mean, the way he stopped that laser blast, come on. It doesn't get much more badass than that. BB-8 was a nice new droid addition too, even if he was essentially R2's replacement.
But lets talk about Rey. A lot of people hated Rey, calling her a Mary Sue, saying she was just a symbol of female supremacy, etc, etc. I didn't exactly see that. Ok, yes, she had a few Mary Sue moments, but what stops her from being completely Mary Sue is that there was a reason behind everything. How can she speak several languages? The same way many other characters can. How can she pilot a ship? The same way many other people can. How can she make such repairs on the Falcon? She grew up as a scavenger, taking apart ships and stuff, and so has knowledge of things like that, and was probably even taught by the junker she was sold to. How does she know how to fight? She grew up on a harsh planet where if you can't defend yourself, you'll die or get taken advantage of. How can she use the Force so easily? Well, we find out later why she's so strong in RoS, but she's also Force sensitive, she grew up believing the stories about the Jedi and what they were capable of, and so was more open-minded about the Force and what it could do, unlike Luke who was more doubtful, as seen in Empire. She also gained some knowledge, or at least an idea of what Force users were capable of when she invaded Kylo's mind; this was even confirmed in the novel. So you see there's a reason and an explanation for a lot of what she's capable of other than the plot simply demanded it. A Mary Sue can just do anything and everything just because, and with no explanation, like suddenly declaring that they had experience in something to allow them to accomplish a task, when there had never been any indication of this otherwise. Even when she beat Kylo in their fight, there was a reason for it. Kylo, who, don't forget, still hadn't completely his training, was distraught after having killed his father, he was shot by Chewie, he was wounded and tired from fighting Finn, who had also gotten a hit against him, he wasn't trying to kill Rey, while she was going all out and trying to kill him, and she caught him off guard by suddenly channeling the Force.
See, plenty of explanation to dismiss the Mary Sue claim. But I also have another theory to explain her strength with the Force, that it was Rey, not Anakin, who the prophecy spoke of. Anakin was the result of Palpatine manipulating the midichlorians to try and create the chosen one for his side, but it was Rey who the prophecy actually spoke of. After all, even though Anakin killed the emperor, balance still wasn't restored, only temporarily stabilized. Palpatine transferred his spirit to his clone body, so the Sith weren't destroyed, and what was left of the Empire rose again as the First Order, and then Kylo appeared. So it was Rey who, when channeling all the past Jedi, actually destroyed the Sith and restored balance to the Force. And with the entire galaxy rising against the First Order and defeating them once and for all, the war truly came to an end and brought peace. So yeah, I didn't have a problem with Rey when taking all these things into account.
I also didn't have a problem with Star Killer Base. I know a lot of people complained about it being just another Death Star, but that's not true. That'd be like comparing a nuke to a grenade and calling it just another bomb. And it wasn't a matter of destroying the main reactor and the whole thing goes boom. As a former stormtrooper, Finn played a vital role in taking it down. They weren't even trying to destroy it, just prevent it from using its weapon. It was destroying the part of the base that allowed the weapon to fire the energy it had gathered, which sub-sequentially caused the base to break down. As for the whole map to Skywalker part of the plot, it may have sounded dumb to some people, but not if you actually think about it. Luke didn't disappear but leave behind a map to where he was. He left with the intention to disappear into exile and not be found. Leia knew he went looking for the first Jedi temple, and that's where the map led to, not Luke. It was just called the map to Skywalker because everyone knew, or at least correctly believed, that he would be there. I will admit though, nostalgia likely played a part of me enjoying the movie, but it was still different enough from A New Hope for me to enjoy it as its own thing. But yes, a little more individuality would have been nice.