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8751 Posts
Luke describes his mistake like this:
And for the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it. It passed like a fleeting shadow. And I was left with shame and with consequence.
So for a split second, upon first discovering the depth of Snoke's corruption of Kylo Ren, he instinctually reacts the wrong way and then immediately regains himself. But Kylo Ren saw that split second and reacted to it, so that was that. And somehow that totally ruins Luke as a character for you? Maybe rewatch the OT and see how many worse mistakes he made. It would be inconsistent if he was some zen master for the entire remainder of his life post-OT. Also it seems like a lot of people who have a problem with Luke in TLJ did not seriously consider after TFA why he chose to go into isolation for so long. It had to have been a huge failure of some sort and it also means that he's been unable to face it and try to fix it for many years. Rian Johnson was stuck with explaining it.
Kylo Ren has been inconsistent because he's been discovering himself. Prior to TLJ and early in TLJ, he'd been following paths laid out by other people his entire life, often torn between two different paths. TLJ tells the story of him realizing he needs to forge his own path. It sets him up well for the final episode.
Speaking of setting people up well for the final trilogy, that's mostly what this movie was about:
--Rey was confused and needed guidance, and ultimately got it from both Luke and Kylo Ren.
--Finn cared only about himself and his friends (Rey & Poe), not about the cause. TLJ told the story of him coming to the decision to support the cause. Rose and DJ existed to represent the two different paths he could take. As they're escaping Canto Bight, BB-8 and DJ stole a ship and DJ says "need a lift?" and after Finn beats Phasma and Finn labels himself rebel scum (thus making his choice), BB-8 and Rose are on a stolen walker and Rose says "need a lift?" The movie is rich with these kinds of things if you watch it with understanding of what's going on.
--Poe had to learn to become a leader. Just like Rose was a character created to tell the story of Finn deciding to join the Resistance, Holdo was a character key to teaching Poe to become a good leader.
I don't think JJ Abrams had satisfactory answers to all of the mysteries and problems he created in TFA. He's good at creating those things and having fun while they're unresolved, but he's not so good at resolving them. I think the person who has to follow Abrams deserves sympathy. Clearly you have the opposite take but if you look at Abrams' past work then I'm not sure what you're hoping for. Rian Johnson inherited a bunch of bullshit and proceeded to make a movie that made concrete progress with every major character and tees up the final episode extremely well.
As for Rey being a Mary Sue, first of all, so was Anakin. Not only could he do things better than he ought to be able to do, he didn't even have parents. He was just born of the force. Rey can't top that, even though the force picked her. That aside, I can't believe that you're a fan of storytelling and character development and you think the only thing to Rey is her abilities. Yeah she's inexplicably awesome at fighting and flying and she learns to use the force very quickly, but those are just skills. She's still a human character with typical human flaws. I just don't understand how you think she's her abilities and nothing else.
The purpose her inexplicable skills served for her character development was giving her a connection to Kylo Ren. It's obvious why Kylo Ren has felt like he's been on a path determined by others his entire life, obvious why he's eventually willing to do anything to forge his own path. For the orphan Rey, she was completely free until her skills and force sensitivity and chance started to make her believe she also had a destiny predetermined by her predecessors. So when Kylo Ren tells her that her parents were nobodies, it's to help her abandon that notion and feel free to forge her own path.
For Holdo and Rose, like I've already said those characters purely supported Poe and Finn's development. Could a different writer and director have written and directed a better story of how Poe becomes the leader of the Resistance and how Finn decides to stop being scared and selfish and join the Resistance? Definitely. I'm not totally in love with what Johnson came up with (though I am glad he decided to do it, since some other writers would have Poe and Finn just change without proper explanation). But so many of the critics of these characters don't even recognize the basic plot and character development going on here. These characters' plots weren't forced in here to give more female characters more screen time. The plots are there to develop Poe and Finn. They're female because diversity is important too. But them being female has nothing to do with why those characters and plots exist and it has nothing to do with how well they were executed.
Before anyone criticizes those plots and those characters, they have to at least demonstrate to me that they understood all of the things they did successfully accomplish. Admiral Ackbar instead of Holdo? Acting in that costume is a way bigger negative than introducing Holdo. We know of Ackbar but we don't actually know him anyway.
Just removing Holdo or Rose? How are Poe and Finn separately going to complete their development? People say the movie would be better without because they haven't observed their value in the first place, so just cutting seems like an improvement. I'm not doubting that some of the best screenwriters ever could have accomplished the same character development in less time and/or with fewer characters, but that's an extremely high standard. It's unreasonable to say TLJ did a bad job of it.
About "lack of world building" you only talk about lack of politics and explanation of resources. I don't know why you can't take things as they come. If you want more details, read novels. It sounds like you're criticizing the action movie format in general because the genre generally minimizes that stuff on purpose. TFA and TLJ give you enough info to know the stakes at hand. Having said that, you don't give credit to the world building that does exist. There are so many new creatures, new locations, etc. We're still learning what the force can do (Leia's space flight, Luke's projection). This episode certainly adds a lot to the world.
I don't know how you can entertain the idea that this trilogy is a copy of the OT. OT Luke does not have the same path as Rey. And who is Finn in the OT? Who is Poe? Are you saying Kylo Ren is actually Vader when all of TFA/TLJ is him either failing to actually be like Vader or deciding to absolutely stop emulating Vader? It seems like to entertain the idea, you have to completely focus on some minor similarities and completely ignore the vast majority of things.
Ultimately, the characters at the end of TFA are not ready to do the shit they need to do for a satisfactory climax to the trilogy. At the end of TLJ, they certainly are. Each main character's development from end of TFA to end of TLJ is given a lot of time and explanation. We also get a lot of great action sequences, see a lot of new places and things, get a lot of great acting. Maybe it didn't capture the magic for you but all the components are there and at the very least, it served its function as the middle movie of a trilogy.
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EPT
