J.J. Abrams responds to criticism over TFA being a rip-off of A New Hope

[Dr.Henry_Killinger]

thismeintiel said:

gatito said:

sabvre42 said:

1.) Force Reflexes
2.) Natural Pilot
3.) Force Pull (Telekinesis)
4.) Resist Mind Reading
5.) Actual Mind Reading against a Sith (one that can stop blasters with the force and could force the superstar republic pilot to spew his guts)
6.) The ability to beat a trained Sith (one trained by both Luke for several years + Snoke for more) in a 1:1 lightsaber duel.

Its quite a bit more than a few minor tricks. 

Rey is clearly Luke's daughter so that gives her half the skills of a Jedi by default. She is also shown to be a strong character that takes care of herself, living on her own and surviving on a harsh enviroment unlike Anakin and Luke who were whiny and spoiled brats and had everything just handed to them. It's also possible she was trained before being left behind in Jakku.

And Kylo Ren is not even a Sith yet, he's still training and temperamental. Plus he was basically dying and had just killed his father, not exactly at his finest. Why isn't anyone questioning why he wasn't killed instantly by Chewbacca's blast. Is it a plot hole? Is he a Gary Stu or just a Sith God? No, people just let it go.

The truth is, Rey would not be scrutinized so much if she were a man.

I really wish we could stop with these poorly worded responses to excuse bad writing.  And by your logic, Luke should have already had the Jedi skills, too, since he is the son of one of the most power Jedis.  Oh wait...he actually had an interesting story arc and had to train, as well as dispell his disbelief in the power of the Force. 

Both Luke and Anakin had to take years to truly master the Force, where as Rey, who has never even freaking heard of the Force, nearly masters it within a day or two of learning about it.  Yep, great writing there.  What happened is they took the lazy way out of showing training and had her learn it through girl power.  They knew white knights and feminists would defend it with the most overused excuse of the time, sexism.  Of course, objective viewers see it for the lazy writing it was, even if overall they enjoyed the film.

Lazy writing perhaps.

When watching the movie what I got out of it was that Rey was a goddamned prodigy. And unlike with Anakin, we aren't told she's a prodigy, they show it.

It was only after she mind read Kylo Ren accidentally that she realized she had the force, and used the mind trick on a whim.

To say she's mastered the force is an exaggeration, she only used it to retrieve her lightsaber and trick a stormtrooper. 

Plus neither Luke nor Anakin had the force really affect them till they were already training, while Rey was exposed to it much earlier. Both of them could've had it but nor realized beforehand, unlike Rey, so its not a stretch that she could just start using it.

 

@everyone else:

Here is Nostalgia Critic's review:

THe last few words are what I think is the most important:

CS: Wow, that actually made things a lot better.

NC: Well, yeah. Trying to make up for the sins of the past holiday special.

CS: So that's why you did so many things the other one did?

NC: Exactly! If I wanna move forward with more specials, I have to prove I can do a regular one ok. So I stick to the formula, only this time I do it a lot better.

NC: Shit this is a metaphor isn't it?

CS: Pretty much.

NC: I guess it does kinda make sense when you really think about it. After so many years of people hating the prequel, these filmmakers had a lot to prove. So they had to demonstrate that they could do something that looks and feels like Star Wars before they can move forward with anything different. Sure a lot of it is on repeat, but its done in such an entertaining and whimsical way, that its still really enjoyable. And who knows maybe the new stuff that should've gotten more attention in this film, will get attention in the next film.

CS: And besides they've done practically every plot thread the other movies have done. Theres not many left, leaving it open to new ideas in upcoming films. It's not a classic, but it doesn't need to be yet. It's the reintroduction of an old freind, whose taken a beating, and just needed to show that he's going to be ok before he accomplishes better things.