Inky Rails On The Force Awakens (Spoilers... Duh) · 2:52am Dec 21st, 2015
Heyo all. Inky Jay here, and if Lapis has gone through with warning you all about what’s about to go down… well, you know. But in case that hasn’t happened, I saw The Force Awakens on Friday and think it is garbage. Unapologetically. Some of my grievances stem from being an avid fan of the original trilogy, and others are more objective points about the film as an independent work. And yes, I am aware I’m in the minority with this opinion. But that’s just it. This is my opinion. And while I do think I’m qualified at this point to talk about the writing and narrative aspects of the film, that still doesn’t mean any of you guys have to take my points for anything. Also spoilers. Lots and all the spoilers.
But that said, let’s jump into this.
To be honest, most of these thoughts didn’t form in my head until I’d had time to think about the film at home. There was one thing that stood out during the film, however. There is a lack of constant orchestration. Now, I haven’t watched the entirety of the original trilogy in some time, so maybe there were times where there was no music present; but, I am positive there is no point at which you as the audience perceive that lack. In The Force Awakens, there are multiple occasions where music is completely absent and my thoughts immediately disconnected from the film to notice it. Now, my larger complaint on this issue is not that the original did have constant orchestration. I’m not sure if it did. What I do know is that music in the original trilogy filled silences, by which I mean that if there was no dialogue or essential sound playing, music was always there. This is done because Star Wars is not pure scifi, but rather scifi/fantasy. And even more specifically, an epic. And epics have, from their inception, been joined at the hip by music. For The Force Awakens to forego this in favor of more modern film techniques takes away the fact that the Star Wars saga was always more than just a movie. It is a movie because George Lucas chose that medium over others.
Like I said, this was the only point that hit me while watching, but before I get into the major narrative problems with this film, let’s just get more nitpicky-style beefs out of the way. First, people are singing Kylo Ren’s praise as a character. I imagine this is mostly due to him being Han’s son, him killing Han, and being a better display of a conflicted character than Anakin was. Alright, I can admit those first two are curious. But let’s examine that last note. On the surface, his acting and motivation for being conflicted are superior. Not when explored. The arching question that defines this problem is: Why is Kylo Ren a Sith? Because he killed all of Luke’s Jedi-in-training? No. Thing is, we as the audience have literally no idea why Kylo Ren turned to the dark side. And the movie offers no hints. The words used throughout the Star Wars films to describe embracing the dark side imply a slow slip that seems inviting due to a character flaw in the person being drawn in. Seduced and tempted are the most clear. Anakin’s flaw was a fear of loss, directly stated by Yoda in The Revenge of the Sith. Even Sidious’s fatal flaw can be seen to a degree as a lust for power.
Part of falling to the dark side is that it is an inherent fall. The film presents us with no reason for where Kylo was unable to overcome a weakness or what that weakness is. And I’m sure you’re saying that Darth Vader wasn’t presented with a conflict that defined his fall. And yes, that is true, but really until Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader was not shown as anything but core evil. He was in no way sympathetic. Hell, his second appearance was strangling a dude! But in the case of Kylo, we are expected to feel compassion for his struggle without being presented with the place he fell and thus, the place where he can overcome the dark side to return to the light. As a character, he is incomplete and by extension, flat.
More of an in-universe issue with Kylo is his helmet - or his constant removing of it rather. Context informs us that Kylo is essentially a fan-boy of Vader and has thus gone so far as to fashion himself a mask he does not need to embody his vision of Vader. We can assume that this level of devotion to an identity forms a core part of who Kylo sees himself being. Why then, from a psychological perspective, would he ever remove it? And to his enemies no less. For Han, it makes absolute sense since Han is a direct connection to the sins Kylo struggles with; however, any narrative and/or emotional impact the act may have had in that scene is ruined because he’s already done it so many times to characters irrelevant to his identity at the time.
Keeping on track with the First Order (look, I know Disney wants to sweep the EU under the rug because yes, it’s a clusterbuck, but even not being someone who knows all that much from the EU, even I can tell you Imperial Remnant is a superior name to this), let’s look at TIE fighters. Because even at the risk of sounding like a complete weeb, I can’t deny they are all wrong here. And no, I don’t mean the color inversion. I actually like that and think it’s pretty schnazzy. First, let’s start with the whole point of a standard TIE fighter. It’s a cheap, unshielded piece of cannon fodder designed almost exclusively to work as part of a much larger squadron. They are, in other words, expendable. TIEs in The Force Awakens now feel like comparable fighter craft to X-wings. Valuable. Multiple weapons. The works. And yet, they still seem to get mopped up like they used to. Which then implies the Resistance is able to win because of better trained pilots. Yet, both A New Hope and Return of the Jedi very clearly showed that the Rebellion doesn’t have better pilots. Just generally better ships. But not any more… apparently.
This consistent symbolism sin is committed again with Kylo Ren’s Star Destroyer, but more from a cinematography standpoint. Part of what made the original Star Destroyers so imposing was that they were shot from almost every angle imaginable and at distances that allowed you to see them in their entirety. This meant you got a very accurate and complete sense of how long, wide, and tall they were. And they were scary because of that. Because you knew. The Empire was not about a nebulous kind of fear, but a very real, direct, and visible variety. And the Star Destroyer is the extension of that philosophy. Why then, do I have no idea in any sense the scale of Kylo Ren’s Star Destroyer? For cryin’ out loud, the first scene of the movie is just a silhouette of the thing, and not even the whole thing. And it is also never shot from anything but looking up at it… at an incredibly close range… in the dark. There is nothing defining about this new Star Destroyer because the film won’t let it be. Won’t let it be a character like its ancestor was. And even from a narrative standpoint, I’m not convinced the First Order is the Empire reborn because it has no imposing iconography.
By now (if you’re still reading, to which I say thank you), you’re probably expecting me to discuss Death Star v.3.0. I’m not. It’s pointless. Digibro and his editor, Davoo, do a far better job explaining why it’s dumb than I ever could. I’ll link their discussion at the bottom of this post.
There’s only two more things I wanna talk about before hitting the story and characters. How spaceships get shot and how spaceships move. The latter is more simple, mostly because this is such a problem in modern film. And part of me understands why it would be since a lot of props like spaceships are created and moved digitally. How in the world they managed to royally fuck this up with physical models is beyond me. What am I talking about? I’m talking about weight and the physics involved when something is moving at insane speeds and also weighs several thousand tons. Thing is, scifi engines and such handwaving as is common in fantasy can only go so far before it ruins believability. There still has to be an element of connection to what you as an audience member expect and what happens on screen.
There is literally no amount of handwaving or scifi BS that can justify the beefy Falcon falling several hundred feet upside down and recovering at speed with a simple switch flick no worse for wear. No. That sucker would shear in half.
And that’s something the original films (and even the prequels!) captured so well and part of why their space fights still look so amazing. Everything is handled as though it does have the weight you imagine it would. And they don’t attempt any crazy maneuvers that would realistically break them into hundreds of pieces. The enjoyment of watching them fly around and shoot shite is accomplished by the cinematography. We see long, steady shots either staying with the craft or staying stationary. A sense of immense speed is conveyed by the blur of static objects or the very swift movement of the ship into and out of the frame. And tension and excitement results from how the shot does not cut until the depicted action is completed or the pilot is shown. In The Force Awakens, the camera is shaky, quick cuts are all but constant, and the audience is given no time to become invested in any single dogfight because it’s either cut away from or over right at the moment it’s cut to.
As a small aside that ties into this, there is no mounting tension since none of the major battles have the iconic slow Rebellion approach with a squadron call in or mention of S-foils.
Okay, story. Characters. Everything in this story is a repetition. Quite literally there is no unique plot. Which I know sounds pretentious since we live in such a derivative culture, but The Force Awakens seems to think that outright relying on the original films for story content (the cantina scene rip is just disgusting in how much of a rip it is) is the way to go. No attempt is made at an original Star Wars story. And even within itself, things repeat. The attack on Jakku and whatever the cantina planet’s name is (can you tell where my investment started to wane?) feel like the same battle.
I have other problems with the story, but it’s more meta to the universe and is less a grounding point for argument. If you wanna hear it, I’ll have my Skype in the description and you can message me if you wanna hear more. For my last bit though, I want to talk about the other two characters that we as the audience should ideally care most about. Rey and Fin.
Fin is initially a compelling idea. A storm trooper who rejects his assigned identity? Sign me up. That right there is original for Star Wars since storm troopers have always been a faceless force. But almost immediately and from that point, this character is turned on its head as the script demands. To begin, Fin’s whole turning point is when a fellow storm trooper is killed in battle and leaves blood on Fin’s helmet. It would stand to reason then, that Fin would be very against killing anyone if it was death that set him off in the first place. And this would be a great place to start his growth as a person as well. Nope. He pretty much offs a boatload of his own brethren without shedding a tear or showing any regret in helping Poe escape. So then, if the film is trying to keep his soldier’s identity alive, why then is he from this point onward a bumbling moron? Rather than subconsciously building around what I think was meant to be the naive but well-meaning archetype, Fin becomes nothing but a self-contradicting embodiment of the lucky idiot archetype to say nothing of how in hell he survived his final confrontation with Kylo.
And then, as my final piece for this post, we have Rey. Oh Rey. See, from the get go, I liked how much of a dedicated, push-on-despite-her-circumstances character she was. Again, this was a new kind of character Star Wars had not seen, and I was excited. Hell, I was even willing to look past how irrational a fully grown adult was being about having been abandoned for cash on a shit world by her parents. I was also going to look past the cringe worthy (though not as bad as Attack of the Clones… eugghhhh) and forced romance with Fin. But then she suddenly, quite literally out of nowhere and with no narrative setup, becomes Force sensitive. And within the span of a scene comes to a Jedi Master level working understanding of her powers. She touched Mary Sue territory with that one, and it made everything else make sense. Rey is, cut and dry, not even trying to hide it, a Mary Sue in every sense of the word. She’s got a tragic backstory, a romantic interest with the other main character, has the in-universe power in spades, is shown to kick ass, and fights the vastly better trained and more invested villain without being chopped to bits. Personal investment destroyed.
So those are my thoughts, albeit condensed and simplified as much as possible for the sake of a post. Again, I’m linking Digibro and Davoo’s discussion on the movie since they elaborate on some of my points as well as my Skype for any parties interested in anything I didn’t mention here (because yes, there are things I didn’t mention). Welp… yeah, I’m ready. I’m ready for the backlash…
UNPOPULAR OPINIONS HUZZAH!
Digi and Davoo’s discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6L1RpKREgY
Skype: Nathan A. Nimtz
It's nice to see another review that isn't one of rose tinted glasses. Thank you for writing this.
3633286
My pleasure. Equally glad the first comment isn't hate for the opinion.
Now i will be the first to admit that i LOVED that movie. That being said, I understand your opinion and completely respect the fact that it's yours and that you have the balls to speak it Especially when it's against such a popular movie. I personally think that Kylo Ren(while not perfect) is still a good character. Because up until the point where he talks to Rey, he wasn't a merciful character at all. He murdered the Entire freaking village in the first scene! if that's not evil, i don't know what is. And it's seems pretty clear that at least part of his fall was trying to live up to Vader and resentment of Luke. So there's definitely something there. And as far as an Unoriginal Plot goes, The same could be said about plenty of other movies. Star Trek Into Darkness comes to mind for me as JJ Abrams modified version of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. And even taking the same general plot from the Original Star Wars is still better that the Prequals in my opinion. And my final thought is that At least Rey wasn't also the pilot who also blew up the superweapon as well as being a Jedi-Mary Sue (Luke Skywalker, i'm looking at you). But those are my opinions, and Mad Respect for you saying your own
I'm not thrilled about the movie either, you certainly aren't alone in that. I also believe that once the initial hype and nostalgia cools a bit a few more reviews like this will come out.
For the same reason that Iron Man keeps opening/taking off his helmet. We the mouth breathing audience needs to see the Star Power Face or we'll wail and nash our teeth railing against the injustice of hiding his beautiful visage.
I've never been heavily invested in Star Wars. The old movies were good, but their age is starting to show. The prequel trilogy ended up stomping on almost everything most fans loved. I'm not surprised that the new Star Wars failed to live up to the hype.
Sure, the universe created by Star Wars is amazing, but the movies are often treated with more reverence than objective respect.
You raise good points, and for the most part I agree, but I humbly present this counter-argument: Star Wars. That will be all.
Hm... well while I'll still watch the movie for myself to determine how I feel about it, I thank you for this review/break down of the story all the same as it is rather informative. Knowing this stuff going in I'll be less likely to derisively snort out loud when I see it happen if nothing else. I kind of figured Fin would wind up like that I'll admit.
I guess this is what we get with Abrams directing. Tell me, did he keep his unnecessary lens flares?
I personally consider this to be the best Star Wars movie yet.
I honestly never noticed the lack of orchestration anywhere.
Although, that's more because I was focused on the dialogue and action and wasn't really paying attention to the score.
Regarding the movie offering no hints as to why Kylo Ren turned to the Dark Side, it doesn't bother me for the simple reason that it's the first movie in the new trilogy. It's supposed to set up at least the next movie, which it does admirably.
As for the Tie Fighters thing, I chalk that up to the First Order (which I actually think is a better name than Imperial Remnant) learning from the mistakes of the original Empire, and realizing, "Using expendable troops didn't quite work in space battles. We need to upgrade our ships."
For the Starkiller weapon, I liked it. It was honestly cool to have a weapon that was actually part of a planet itself instead of one that was the size of a small moon.
As for the repetition thing, the battle on Jaaku and the battle on the cantina planet (I forget it's name as well, but that's more because a lot was going on) didn't feel exactly the same.
Plus, while I did notice similarities between this movie and the original trilogy, I didn't mind since it was still a great story to see.
Actually, it's more that it was the killing of innocents that set him off.
So, him killing other stormtroopers to help Poe escape didn't bother me either.
As for him surviving his encounter with Kylo Ren, that didn't bother me either because:
a. Characters survive things that they shouldn't all the time in movies. (You can thank CinemaSins for this one).
b. There wasn't one single killing blow dealt directly to Fin.
As for Rey, I don't think she qualifies as a Mary Sue quite yet. For the simple reason that, again, this is just the first movie of the new trilogy. The explanation for her being as powerful as she was will probably be given in the next one.
Plus, her handling herself well against Kylo Ren was just awesome.
And any remaining plotholes that can't be explained away with "It's the first movie in the new trilogy" don't bother me because it had great action and great comedy.
I recommend you watch the following two videos for further explanations on several of my points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wyoN_nMB5I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=togEVXlEi98
3633327
If he did, I didn't notice.
I have to say, you raise some interesting points. I don't necessarily agree with all of them, but there's certainly some good premise there.
Regarding the music, I wouldn't go so far as to say the more modern method of filling scenes with silence is bad, but I will agree that it falls short for me compared to swelling epic music. Especially when the first trilogy had scenes like this.
Regarding Kylo, I think maybe his characterization was a gamble they made given they've decided to do a trilogy from the get-go. Remember, no one was really sure how people would react to Star Wars, so the big-budget Empire Strikes Back was off the table and Return of the Jedi wasn't even remotely considered during the filming of the original. Had it not worked, Vader would have just been straight up evil with no redemption arc. This time around, it feels like they hedged their bets a little bit, making sure there was a character we could hope to redeem from the beginning of the trilogy. I'm not entirely sure it worked, but I do really love how it allowed for his deeper fall into darkness. Additionally, the fact that this differs from how we see Vader throughout Star Wars is refreshing. I think that may have had something to do with it, as it may be been a little too copy/paste if he was just plain evil in this movie. As to it over all, I'll withhold judgment until the next ones come out.
As to Kylo's helmet, I do agree that it seems a little incongruous. I think they were going for the "I don't wear this mask out of shame" thing by having him taking it off so easily, but I'm not sure it worked.
I think the First Order's view of TIE Fighters may have shifted over the 30 years since ROTJ, which may account for the improved systems on them. It would definitely fit in flavor-wise with a fringe group of the former Empire. Without the limitless reach and resources of the Empire, continuing to fight a Resistance backed by the provisional Republic, they would have to start being more careful with ships and pilots. They simply aren't as replaceable as they used to be. But it definitely could have been explained better in the movie. Aside from the color inversion, they're visually identical to the cannon fodder which makes it unintuitive.
I'll actually go on a tangent here that was my big gripe about the movie. Why the hell are the Rebels now the Resistance? They're effectively the naval forces of the New Republic, right? So why are they being treated as the same rag-tag group of rebels? It would have definitely made more sense to have them better equipped and better trained. Which in turn helps fill in the void as to why they're still able to kick ass against TIE Fighters. Because while the First Order shifted to better ships and non-expendable pilots, they started there and with the influx of capital from the New Republic government, they've been able to hold onto that lead.
With regards to scale and Kylo's Star Destroyer, I was pretty okay with how tight the shots were since they gave a similar sense of scale by a different way. Namely, this thing is so huge, there's no way you can see all of it unless you're way the hell away from it. It's so big it just blocks your view of everything else. And I dug that. The black-on-black-on-black aspect of it blotting things out, eh, not so much. Additionally, I did kind of dislike the disjointedness of the interior shots and how there's no good sense of scale or where things are inside the bigger ships, but I think that's just a problem inherent to the medium and time limits. There's no good way to show where Points A and B are in relation to each other aside from showing the travel from said A to B and to do that with all the different places would just eat up way too much time.
As to the Starkiller Cannon, I actually really liked its mode of operation. I thought it made a much better mechanism for putting in a time limit than the original Death Star's "arrive on the wrong side of the planet then slowly orbit around it to get into range" method. And the super nerd in me loved the reference, I willfully admit. It's a bit late for me to listen to 2.5 hours of dissection on it, but overall I liked it though I will admit that it did feel a bit lazy/tongue in cheek to do "Death Star, but way bigger" for the first movie in the trilogy, especially with how that was called out in-movie.
Finn's characterization does seem a little schizophrenic. It felt a bit like they weren't sure whether they wanted him to be a defector because he was ashamed and angry at the evil perpetrated by the First Order, or if he was defecting because he was terrified and horrified by battle and losing his comrades. Given his reluctance to shoot anything during the first battle, it seems like they went with the former, but didn't do as thorough a job of scrubbing bits of the latter as they could have.
His bumbling comedic bits actually tie into another bit. Frankly, I'm kind of ambivalent on it. It seemed to fit well in some places and fall flat in others. Like the two troopers making patrols who hear Kylo taking out some of his anger and decide to back up and patrol a different corridor. Everyone, myself included, laughed in the theater, but on reflection I'm not sure if it really fits with the "cold, merciless killer" vibe we're supposed to get from stormtroopers the rest of the time.
Finally, Rey. My big gripe for her isn't so much where she ended up on the power curve at the end of the movie, but how quickly she got there near the end. It's Star Wars, there has to be the Force-sensitive, lucky good guy winning the day. But I think her showing a little more Force sensitivity earlier on (being aware of Finn lying from the beginning without knowing why, being unrealistically strong when fighting the two scavengers, or even being extra persuasive with the rations clerk) would have done a lot to even it out. As it stands, she starts and stays pretty weak for almost the whole movie aside from having an uncanny mechanical aptitude. And then in the last 20 minutes, she pulls out all the stops. And I think that's where things went sideways, because frankly we all knew she was going to be Skywalker 2.0. Orphan kid on a desert planet who goes off on an intergalactic adventure? Yep, definitely the next Chosen One. But to get to such a high level so quick right at the end is what was jarring.
And yet, despite the foibles and faults both you and I've mentioned, I still walked away thinking it was a very good movie. Not perfect, but very good. Easily an 8 out of 10 for me. It had action, beloved characters, good vs. evil, and plenty of good, powerful battles (while the space battles did feel floaty, the ground combat was wonderful and percussive.) I think it certainly stands as a faithful following to the original trilogy and I'm very eager to see what they do in Episode VIII.
FINALLY SOMEONE THAT DOESN'T PRAISE IT OUT OF THEIR ARSE HOLE! THANK YOU DEAR DEAR AUTHORS THANK YOU!
I mean really i get tired of hearing how great something is despite the obvious plot holes there are some things are fine leaving to the next chapter....some things aint, a lot of people, now I finally heard something negative about it more than "It isn't perfect or as good as the original films, but better than the prequels!" as if thats any indication of what it is! you actually give me a opinion that isn't stooped into "OMG THIS IS SO GREAT!" granted more negative than i think you meant it to be, but that happens.
Anyway thanks really its nice to hear am not the only one who finds this film...lacking. (Says the girl that loved episode one) (still hated Jarjar thought...)
I'm just sayin', I appreciate how Kylo Ren's shoddy abilities are made perfectly clear in the film, what with his Lightsaber being awfully made and awfully focused, but that's about it.
Him being able to stop a blaster bolt mid-air? Not a chance of that. Anakin couldn't do that, and he had highest 'midiclorian' count of any force user. Kylo is untrained and, presumably, nowhere near that level of force-sensitivity.
But meh. I'll still be watching the next one when it comes into existence.
Am thinking that when star wars characters hear the wilhelm scream, they become force sensitive. Anakin heard it in the pod racing scene i think, luke heard it when he tossed a guy to the sarlacc, and Rey heard it when the outpost got bombed. Ren offed this guy (Solo) in the hopes that he'd hear the Wilhelm scream when the guy falls into the reactor but nope, he got denied, that's why he was a whiny bitch at the end.
In case you don't get the reference, look up the Wilhelm scream in google. It's been in almost every movie in existence.
Edit: also, another force sensitive coming fron a desert planet?
Kylo Ren came off as a bitch right as the mask came off. Sorry for being blunt.
Before that, he came off as a badass-Darth-Vader-worshipping-psychopath and felt like a legit threat. But when that mask came off. Damn. He looks like average Hot Topic goer with an identity problem.
3633310 Kylo Ren was a dweeb. If I was Vader, I wouldn't want him fanboying over me.
And in response to most of the original point: I agree that they lost a lot of the feel with the new movie, but if you went in having extensively studied the EU, both Kylo and Rey make more sense. Finn did seem a bit murderous, but that even could be chalked up to his circumstances. The first interaction he had with them after going AWOL was TIE bombers attacking him. The second, a trooper he appeared to recognize confronted him with a taster stick. Kylo's personality seems similar to Jacen Solo, who only wore his own Vader style helmet when he was feeling angsty.
Rey did show some level of at least sensitivity to the Force early on, noticing BB8, and the stalling trick in the Falcon. A little more peeked out on the salvage ship, when she was looking for Finn.
The Starkiller Base had a large number of issues related to time and manpower, but in essence filled the superweapon slot in the movie. Could have been done better.
3633290 Eh, i don't get that vitriol myself for some folks. I love the star wars series, I do, and I cringe when something comes across that just makes a mess of things in the bad way. It stinks to know, and while many are so starved in a way for the movies. I lament that this wasn't true in its way to the epic it started so long ago.
I hope to be a fan of the series, not a FAN, of the series. And that to always be true.
Interesting points, but I have to disagree with you about Kylo Ren "constantly removing his helmet." He literally removed it twice - once in front of Rey, to basically show her up on her challenge of him 'hiding behind it', and once in front of Han. After that, it stayed off.
I haven't seen the film... and I have no plans to, after reading the summary on Wikipedia last week.
I will quote my comments from a couple of other places: "BB-8 was cute. But I'll stick with the first two film trilogies and the old Expanded Universe (The Han Solo Adventures, The Lando Calrissian Adventures, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, all the books from Bantam, Dark Horse's comics from the 1990s and a couple of the books from the early 2000s) for my Star Wars enjoyment." (I'll pass on New Jedi Order and everything that was set afterward.)
Seriously, I was already annoyed when they wiped the EU from continuity. But when they killed off one of the original trio of main characters for this movie... THAT went way too far. The sooner they restore the original continuity, the better.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
I never understood how people think Rey's abilities appeared from nowhere differently than Luke's did. He didn't have any training or observation to go on, and he hadn't even heard of the Force until a day ago. He started deflecting blasters blindfolded after a conversation with Obi-Wan, and made the shot to blow up the Death Star despite also having never flown a space ship before. He had just worked on them, like Rey. A T-16 and womp rats wouldn't have been great training either, because since "hyperspace isn't like dusting crops," we should acknowledge that piloting an aircraft has little to do with piloting a spacecraft, in combat no less. Even Finn using the Millenium Falcon's turrets is more believable, since as a soldier he probably got some training as a gunner.
Luke pulls off some impressive physical feats when going through the Death Star, and then gets to be a hero while dog fighting as well. Compare that with Force Awakens, the big dogfight at the end is accomplished with actual veteran pilots (even though we never get to know Poe the same way we do with Luke and Rey). Rey only got to fly the Millenium Falcon once off of Jakku, and I have no clue how you think she's better than Han at piloting. Do you mean that the actual fight scene with the Falcon was more thrilling than the one in New Hope? That isn't indicitive of the pilot's skill, that's just because Force Awakens had a way more massive budget, and technology for film making has come such a long way.
Rey fought off two unarmed scavengers. Luke lost to an armed Tusken Raider. I'm not sure how we're suppose to objectively compare the fights when we don't know much about the comabatants. But in general, of course she's better in a fist fight than Luke. He actually got to grow up in a house with a family. All she had was a hut in a desert surrounded by thieves. I agree that there should have been less ease in her defeat of Kylo, and using the Force in a fight for the first time. But the actual outcome of him losing still makes sense. He's already been shot with a bowcaster at this point, and took a hit with a lightsaber from Finn. Besides, Kylo's is definitely dangerous, but he soooo isn't at Darth Vader's level, even in his best shape.