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

[Dr.Henry_Killinger]

thismeintiel said:

Dr.Henry_Killinger said:

thismeintiel said:

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.

Yet, more poor excuses for lazy writing.  Sounds just like the fans of the prequels when they released.  And even though the prequels did the stupid "Anakin is basically Jedi Jesus"  they had enough sense to NOT have him master everything on his own, in the matter of a few days of finding out about the Force.  It took him years to pull off the crap Rey is doing.  Same goes for Luke. So, yes, it is a stretch you can go 0-Jedi in under 48 hours.  And she did a lot more than pull a lightsaber and trick a stormtrooper.  She stopped a trained Jedi from reading her thoughts, while seeing into his.  She did a mind trick, something Luke could only do til movie 3 in the OG trilogy.  She used it to defeat a trained Jedi/Sith in a lightsaber battle.  And that said lightsaber was not just laying there, a trained Jedi/Sith was trying to pull it towards him at the time.

The true sad thing is that no one would be defending this poor writing if it was a man.  They would have expected more.  And they have been given more in the past.  But because it wasn't, we have to have those that sympatize with the modern feminist movement defending because of... uh...sexism. 

And don't post NC like he's the end all be all on opinions.  His is also a poor excuse.  You can do something different AND it be good.  Many movies have proven this before.  With that thinking Empire and Jedi should have been exactly like Hope, with slight changes, and would have been exceptable.  Many people have even given suggestions for what they could have done to this movie to make it different, but not seem like a paint by numbers, and quite a few of them have been very good.  Sadly, Hollywood likes to keep playing it safe and/or played out, and people keep making excuses for them.  Yet, some of those same people complain about remakes.  Go figure.

I posted NC because he made a good point at the end, I disagree with his entire review.

The originals, the prequels, and the new trilogy are obviously coming in at different eras and different circumstances. Who the fuck cares that it was like the old ones, the last move came out a decade ago, the first one came out 4 decades ago. It's basically a reboot rather than a continuation anyway. Cause Star Wars isn't aimed for just those who watched the previous ones. After the prequels, how is playing it safe unreasonable? Please. And FYI, I've never complained about remakes, not even TLOU RE. Yeah story wise it was weak, but it had better acting then prequels and better effects than the original.

 

You keep saying Rey mastered the force, when all she did was beat a wounded sith in training who got shot by a laser cannon and was already established as being weak in the force.

You're exaggerating how proficient she is, she stopped Kylo on accident, neither of them knew she had the force, so Kylo didn't expect any kind of resitance.

I conceded that there was some lazy writing, but your acting like its was impossible for Rey to display any of the force power just because she wasn't trained.