^ The visuals definitely hint toward some sort of connection between Rey and Luke, as does Rey's ability to just intuitively figure out how to use the Force and fight with a lightsaber to the point where she's able to go head-to-head against a Skywalker (Kylo Ren/Ben Solo).
I had the exact opposite issue with exposition- while obviously some things weren't covered (How did Kylo get to the dark side? What exactly is Rey's background? What's up with Poe Dameron? How did C-3PO get a red arm?), it makes sense to leave some of what happened in the past 30 years either up to the audience (like the red arm) or for future movies (how did Kylo turn?). But the sort of stuff that this movie did cover was more or less shoved down viewers' throats- Hux gave a speech about Starkiller Base
to the First Order. It was clearly the movie trying to feed some basic plot details to the audience, because the First Order doesn't need to know the backstory on the New Republic, First Order, or Starkiller Base (instead, they might be more interested in knowing how they're going to keep Starkiller Base from blowing up like every superweapon of the same caliber before it)- I'm surprised a stormtrooper didn't just look at Hux and ask him why he was telling them about all this when they should've already been familiar with those aspects of the story.
Also, Captain Phasma giving up so easily- lowering the shields to what's essentially the beating heart of her organization instead of laying down her life for it- just made that character a really weak villain.
Kylo being able to manipulate energy (e.g., stop blaster fire) using the Force is also a stupid idea because now the Jedi and Sith are basically gods.
or then why are Skywalkers that special??
The Skywalkers (descended from Anakin) are basically a magical Jesus dynasty. Anakin was more or less the product of a virgin birth, literally conceived by the Force (likely in response to an attempt by Sidious and Plagueis to create life) in order to bring back balance (i.e., the Force was probably pissed at the Sith's attempt to manipulate it that way) to the Force. This entire family consists of incredibly powerful Force sensitives deeply connected to the Force by their very existence. That's why they're special- because the Force literally made them to be special. They're basically gods.
We also don't know Ben's reasons for turning evil. I suspect that will be revealed in Episode 8, but it definitely has to do something with his ambition for becoming Vader and "correcting" Vader's "mistake" of not killing Luke (partly by killing Luke himself).
Ben sees himself as the good guy and thinks what he's doing is necessary for some greater purpose- he also didn't kill Han because he's that evil but because he's struggling with the light and the dark inside of him and thought that eliminating his connection to Han Solo (the last thing tethering him to the light side) would help him resolve that conflict. He did it because he thought it was necessary, kind of like how he struck his wound during the battle with Rey- because he wanted to push himself toward the dark side. He's not dark yet, just very close to it.
I thought they won in the 6th episode when Luke killed the emperor?
This was covered in the movie. The Republic is the largest government of the galaxy and the Resistance is a militant force backed by the Republic (so they're not the Rebellion anymore) fighting against the last dregs of the Empire (e.g., the First Order). There's still some remnants of the Empire (it wasn't that easy to destroy, after all, after controlling the whole galaxy). Likely, they're some people that found Snoke (Sidious had some people stationed out near the Unknown Regions because he was noticing some powerful dark side being in that region and wanted to know what it was; I'm going to guess that was Snoke) and are now trying to restore an Empire-like structure under him (and bring back the Sith).
Also, Luke didn't kill the Emperor. Vader did.
wtf are the Sith that strong?
Snoke is probably what made Sidious shit his pants to the point that he told his army to keep looking for whatever was in the Unknown Regions
even after he dies (the First Order is coming back from the Unknown Regions... with Snoke). Snoke is probably ridiculously overpowered or has some strong Force aura about him.
But I'm not sure why they made Kylo that strong- I mean, he's a Skywalker, but the new Force abilities might be way too much.
Edited 12/19/2015 22:17:33