Never called anyone a moron. Melodramatic perhaps…
The Force was strong with her. That’s all the explanation you need, being inexplicably good at piloting is one effect that being strong in the Force has been shown to have repeatedly.
Multiple reasons.
First, Kylo Ren was emotionally conflicted, and that’s important for channeling the Force. He had thought that killing his father would remove the conflict, but it only made it worse.
Second, he had just been shot in the side with a freaking bowcaster. That thing’s practically an anti-material rifle, it’s amazing that he lived through that. He was severely injured and it was probably taking most of his focus to just stay standing.
Thirdly, Kylo Ren isn’t all that trained, and is actually crappy at lightsaber fighting. His style was sloppy, all anger and charging rage and no style or focus. He’s no Darth Vader, and he knows it.
Finally, Finn was on sanitation duty as punishment. He’s actually a trained combatant, part of an elite group, trained with firearms and with melee weapons like the stun baton shown earlier in the movie. Ok, he probably wouldn’t have lasted 2 seconds against Luke or even against a fully focused and uninjured Kylo Ren, but as it was I didn’t have any trouble believing the outcome.
I wasn’t at all disappointed by Age of Ultron.
I’m disappointed by any Avengers project that doesn’t feature Diana Rigg as Emma Peel.
Remember when Obi Wan mentions off-hand to Luke something like, “I understand you’ve become quite a good pilot yourself.”?
Now compare that to Finn and Rey’s back and forth that amounted to
“How did you do that?!”
“I don’t know. I just did it.”
One line makes all the difference.
Point of order, Star Wars is NOT science fiction and has never pretended to be. It is space opera. Science fiction portrays ordinary people in extrordinary circumstances presented by technological advances or tech advances creating ordinary circumstances out of extrordinary people (aliens, robots, etc.)
Second, I was not a huge fan of the movie the first time I saw it, but after seeing it again appreciated it more. I had assumed Rey was possibly Luke’s kid and they were teasing it, but no, she is his child and it makes a few scenes in th4 movie far more powerful. None more so than the end when she meets him on the island. He is broken up at getting to see his grown daughter, the heart broken she has carried the light saber to him. The whole franchise is about destiny and Luke has never wanted to swim in that stream. He thought his destiny was a moisture farmer on tattooine and resented it, found a new path as a Jedi then discovered the father he never knew was skilled with the force but would not change his course. He left and abandoned Rey when the school went to shit because he didn’t want her to face dead or the dark side. When he met her again he discovered his destiny would haunt him no matter what.
Look I get the EU hatred. The only thing I liked about it was the Thrawn trilogy. BUT if you are going to completely ignore the EU then don’t act like it is brand new when you just change names. Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus. Rey is probably going to turn out to be the Ben Skywalker from the EU. So don’t say he threw out the EU.
It was a competent actioneer that was well suited to setting up the Marvel Phase 3 storylines and introducing some new characters, if but briefly and often incoherently. As a Joss Whedon film, however, it lacked the typical clever interplay, genre-bending twists, and cracking dialog. It was the Iron Man 2 of the Avengers films; a film that wasn’t really justified by its own plot so it had to recreate the previous one.
Unfortunately, I think Dame Rigg is a bit beyond putting on the skin-tight suit and taking down villains with her Webley Mk IV while Mr. Steed stands around creeping on her, but her wit is as rapier sharp as ever on Game of Thrones. We can be thankful, however, that no one has repeated the mistake of making an Avengers film starring Uma Thurman on Quaaludes.
Stranger
Maz was based on an English teacher from high school, Palisades Charter High School. Her name was Ms. Gilbert, who died recently. Apparently J.J Abrams was her studnet.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jj-abrams-based-a-star-851128q
That’s one that I thought was not very good.
When Rey proves her scavenging and repair abilities, recognises a good ship when she sees it, and even says when Finn says they need someone to fly it that they do have someone, meaning herself, that’s all the equivalent of proving she’s a competent pilot. What makes her a remarkable pilot, as things unfold, is her abilities and instincts via the Force. It’s all there, it’s just spelled out differently.
Just remember, folks. If Rey had instead responded with “I’ve become quite the good pilot myself”, Abrams would be lambasted for copying Episode IV.
I have a massive hatred of JJ Abrams, though I can’t think of a logical reason. I liked both his Star Trek and Star Wars movies. He just strikes me as someone I wouldn’t get along with in real life. Which I base on nothing.
I agree. Obviously the ideal for a film is to explain enough so things are clear, but not so much that it slows the film down and gets boring. But if you’re either going to have too much unnecessary explanation like the prequels, or not quite enough like in The Force Awakens, I’d rather have not quite enough.
It should be pointed out, again, that Abrams is very much a hired gun on this project. He’s not involved at all with any of the currently planned Star Wars films. He has as much say in the overall direction of the Star Wars franchise as Jon Favreau does over the Marvel movies - including stuff like throwing out the EU.
If you want to know who to thank (or blame) for what’s going on in Star Wats these days, the name you want is Kathleen Kennedy.
Also, Timothy Zahn’s Heirs to Empire has been out of canon since way before Disney got its hands on it.
The “Expanded Universe” is of no interest to 95+% of Star Wars fans and would handcuff every decision they make.
“The Force Awakens” is consistent with the events of the MOVIES, which is all that matters.
And the 5% it does matter to will go to the movie regardless.
I do not agree that it succeeded at that. The implications of the end of Return of the Jedi were that the Rebel Alliance was victorious and the Empire was defeated, and that Luke Skywalker had his head screwed on straight with regard to the Dark Side. Episode 7 should not have been about the New Republic being treated like it was still the Rebel Alliance, the Imperial Remnant still being treated like it can secretly build even bigger and more destructive planet killers than the Death Star, and about Han, Luke and Leia failing utterly at raising a child to not be a serial killer.
+1
Look, I liked The Force Awakens. But we aren’t going to know if Jar Jar Abrams created a movie as great as the original trilogy for another 30 years.
The R2 unit probably does most of the flying anyway.