kbell said:
Ahsoka Tano. a female jedi, from the Star Wars TV series had more character growth than Rey. She started off as an impulsive padawan who over the course of the series became quite competent in the force. Her skills she had to to work for more so than Rey. I'm not sure why they couldn't do something similar in the movie. Hopefully Rey was trained as kid as a Jedi, memory wiped, and taken away to give some reason why she is able to use the force so well. If she keeps up at this pace, Kylo will be totally useless as a villain next time she fights him.
The easiest way out of this box canyon they've ridden her character into would be to (heh heh heh) agree and amplify: in Ep 8, portray her as capable when stressed but suicidally overconfident once she's had a bit of training from Luke.
Remember Luke's path in ESB: he's drawn out of his training because Vader is torturing his friends. The conversation basically goes:
Luke: But I can help them! I feel the Force!
Ben: But you cannot control it. This is a dangerous time for you - when you will be tempted by the Dark Side of the Force.
Yoda: Yes, yes, to Obi-Wan you listen! The cave - remember your failure at the cave.
Luke: But I've learned so much since then - Master Yoda, I promise to return and finish what I've begun, you have my word.
To his credit, by the end of this conversation and scene, Luke understands that he's facing Vader alone, without Ben interfering, and at least has some notion of how dangerous what he's doing is.
You could run almost a parallel scene with Rey arrogantly deciding after a month or two of training that she's got what it takes to beat Ren outright, and declaring Luke's taught her everything she needs to know and she's heading off to end Ren's threat once and for all. This would send a chill down Luke's back and drive a nice, hot conflict-driven scene where Luke begs her not to go and make
exactly the same mistake he did, or even worse since at least he did it out of having no alternative.
The following scene being a curbstomp by Ren, who is much more settled, much more capable, and much better able to handle her. This would even be a
necessary step on the path for Rey if we wanted to be kind and allow her to develop into a more fucking humble human being and balanced heroine.
The problem being, of course, that this sort of scene is pretty much unfilmable politically now. As Rey's been thrown in as a hero for all those "downtrodden" fictional second fiddle female characters everywhere, you basically cannot spit in her eye without inviting a dreadful feminist backlash for beating up on a chick. I don't know if Rian Johnson is quite up to writing such a movie, or having enough clout to get it past Disney.
Slim Shady said:
Well David Lynch already tried to do Dune in 1984. Give it to Peter Jackson? I don't know. Dune is a lot more complex than Lord of the Rings.
The person who can do it correctly would have to have the grinding patience and perfectionism of Kubrick.
I'd like to see Fincher's take on it. He's at least unswerving on his vision and he's perfectly willing to turn in pretty disturbing films.
