While this movie is the highest grossing movie of all time (domestically), is among the top ranked on Rotten Tomatoes, is considered the third best Star Wars movie, there are still a few folks that like to poke holes in the plot. While I don’t disagree with some of them, there is one I want to talk about specifically. Some folks found it hard to believe that Rey just suddenly knew how to use her powers. I’m going to offer my thoughts on why I think her ability to use her powers is conceivable and how she may be the most powerful Jedi yet.
First off, she doesn’t just suddenly know how to use them, not everything works on the first try. The Jedi Mind Trick, for example, took her a couple tries before she could convince the Stormtrooper to remove her restraints. Her duel with Kylo Ren wasn’t an epic battle, she was barely surviving against his fury; in fact had their fight not been disrupted by an exploding planet, Kylo Ren would probably have defeated her.
Everyone has some innate talent or ability and not everyone recognizes those abilities right away. It might take some accident (perhaps a “happy accident?” – thank you Bob Ross) or being thrown to the proverbial wolves before your natural talent is discovered. Since it’s a natural talent, you might find that certain abilities come more easily to you. Granted those abilities are probably not going to be as refined or sophisticated as someone who has had practice/experience. I’m not talking about some science fiction, superhuman, fantasy based concept; this kind of thing happens in real life, and can happen to everyone. In fact some people have recognized their natural abilities and they have made a living out of it. Perhaps someone has a natural talent for cooking or baking and go on to become a chef. If you want something a little closer to Rey, perhaps some people discover they have a natural talent for martial arts and go on to train others or perform stunt work.
Rey discovering her Jedi abilities is not some cheesy method of advancing the plot quickly. Also, I’m convinced she has the blood of a Skywalker. In fact I believe she is Luke’s daughter (I’ve started calling her Rey Skywalker). So she is the daughter of a powerful Jedi who was the son of another very powerful Jedi; which leads me to my conclusion that Rey may be a Jedi prodigy.
I did see Batman vs Superman. I have been talking smack about this movie since it came out and the reviews were so awful. I’ve mostly been doing it to those of my friends that give me a hard time about Star Wars (despite its $932 million in domestic box office sales). I’ve also been doing it because I knew I was going to see the movie. Typically I won’t be too quick to publicly judge a popular movie like this unless I intended to see it (after all, I did watch Titanic before I finally decided I didn’t like it). In the spirit of full disclosure, I probably wouldn’t have gone to see this movie if I hadn’t been invited by a friend and the real reason isn’t because of the reviews. I think ticket prices are awful! (Just to warn you, there is a little bit of a spoiler at the end.)
I used to watch the Oscars like I watch the Super Bowl. In fact I used to play the Oscar game (i.e. predict the winners of all the categories) and I was pretty good at it, however since 8 Mile won best song, I haven’t watched the Oscars. I think the Academy plays favorites, or they are in the pockets of the production studios that win top prize. I don’t know why certain movies/actors are chosen, but whether its favoritism or kickbacks, The Academy lacks objectivity. This is exactly what drives me crazy about the “call to boycott” the Oscars by Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee and why I don’t watch the Oscars anymore.
I think I also had to tone down the pride a notch or two since I was correct on one of my story arc predictions (which I can talk about in a bit – I want to save the spoilers until later in the post). I found the picture to the right on Facebook and I had to include it in this post. It accurately reflects how I felt walking out of The Force Awakens.