But Rian did more of a retread than what JJ did in TFA,.....JJ did a homage,....RJ re-did scenes but mocked them,....his main trick was recreating a scenario from ESB or RotJ, making you think you think how the familiar scene will play out,...but he darts off in a different direction
RJ didn't do anything fresh in this film,.....it was sour
J
I haven't re-watched the film since I saw it in the theater, but how do you feel like he "re-created" scenes? About the only one I can think of is the assault on Crait at the end. I suppose you could say Rey's trip into the dark side cave was like Luke's but there, the big difference is that it seems like Rey learns the real lesson of the experience, whereas Luke kinda didn't.
There are general references back to previous situations (e.g. the young would-be Jedi consulting the old, isolated Jedi; the throne room meeting with the Big Bad and subsequent fight). And there are definitely subversions of
tropes we've come to expect in Star Wars (e.g., the daring commando raid that...whoops...goes completely awry due to the betrayal of one of the members; the chase through space that actually isn't much of a chase at all; the starfighter assault that takes out the big bad guy weapon but costs a ton of starfighters and...er...wasn't really worth it in the end). But subverting tropes or referencing general situations isn't the recreation of scenes wholesale just for the purpose of destroying them.
I also would dispute that RJ creates these sequences
just to destroy them. It's not like "Oh, you like your fun old Star Wars toy? >SMASH!< SUCK IT!! I **** ON YOUR OLD STAR WARS AND YOU ARE LAME FOR LOVING IT!!!" although I gather there are fans out there who think that's exactly what happened.
Rather, I think he subverted these tropes for the purpose of taking the story in a different direction from what's expected, ideally to lay the groundwork for an equally satisfying, but very different story (jury's still out on that, since we don't have a final chapter yet), and because doing so allows the characters to end up in different places -- and therefore to explore new aspects of the story and the characters -- than the expected version.
To put this into context: the expected version of the story is Rey shows up on Ach-To, says to Luke "I need you to train me so I can defeat the bad guys." Luke says "I've been waiting for you. I will train you." Insert scenes of Rey training by lifting rocks and pulling Luke's old X-wing out of the water and such. Insert sequence where Luke has Rey feel the power of the light side, and the power of the dark side, she has some funky vision in a cave, and then goes off to confront Ben. Big duel in the throne room, Rey is injured, just as Finn and Rose and DJ succeed in disabling the hyperspace tracking, after which they escape....but oh no! Finn is captured by Phasma because DJ got cold feet, but now he feels bad and is a good guy, and they all escape together on the Falcon, get to Crait, the Rebels fight off an Imperial attack, escape again thanks to Luke's last minute sacrifice, and we'll see you next time, folks. Rey is now determined to restore the Jedi order, thanks to Luke's teachings, and they're gonna go rescue Finn, too, in Episode IX, which is where the First Order loses utterly, Snoke is defeated, Ben is redeemed but dies, the end, put a bow on it.
Like, that's a really predictable version of all of this. Everyone ends up just being analogues for the last generation. Instead, we have some deeper differences, such as a real question as to what's gonna happen with Ben, whether Rey's approach to being a Jedi will be as "light/dark" dichotomous as the previous generations' were, the fact that the Rebellion is basically like 40 people on the Falcon and that's IT, Luke gone (but probably a Force ghost?), Leia alive (which they'll have to deal with), Poe no longer the reckless hotshot pilot and learning from his mistakes, Finn going through similar growth and falling in love, and so on. There's a sense of hope, but there's also a sense of "Man, I have no idea what comes next." I, for one,
do not see this wrapping up neatly by the end of Ep. IX. I hope it doesn't, anyway, since that'll leave it open to tell more stories with these characters and really explore things while breaking out of the strict "Everything is dealt with in a single trilogy" story.
