[Movie] Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi

[Torto]

Why don't you go ahead and point out some examples of this cancer growing from Star Wars for us. I need some help here.

You don't need help you just need Google. There are countless articles and videos out there detailing exactly how Star Wars has been politicised with a SJW/feminist agenda. But hey, if your happy to ignore it and enjoy the films for what they are then more power to you, you're not alone. But for some of us the constant women = good, men = bad/inept/impulsive messages get a little insulting after a while. And the blatant racism throughout the films is a disgrace.

[Deleted]

I thought you said you hadn't watched it? So why is the first part of your response presuming to know what the movie is?

For your information, no, it's not like TFA in the sense that it rehashes plots. In fact that's why I loved it so much (I had major gripes with TFA for being a duplication of Episode IV). And calling the writing bad is somewhat disingenuous as the writing for the most recent star wars movies has been on par for the writing with the original trilogy (This is Star Wars we're talking about, it never had amazing writing that we come to expect from every major media production). And as for the essence of SW that people loved, I'd say it's changed slightly but is still very much there. There is a clear and distinct message being sent and feeling that they capture in every sequence.

Regarding what you said about my disclaimer:

1) You shouldn't expect your heroes to be better than who they were when you left them. If they were you wouldn't have a story. 'Grandmaster Jedi Luke Skywalker the Most Strongest Knight Wizard' can't exist in a world with the conflict necessary for a good story. That story would basically sum up as "Luke Stops the bad guy with his incredible strength and nobody learns anything because there was no reason for anybody to grow or change as a character." Not to mention These Films are about the new heroes, not Luke Skywalker.

2) Star Wars' political message is not the biggest controversy around it by a long shot. The controversy surrounding the film currently was that it was so much different from the other movies and that people felt both misled in their expectations, and some feel the story wasn't correctly written. The only people who have a problem with politics are the ones who have deluded themselves into thinking that it was a 2 and a half hour long propaganda film trying to match some SJW agenda.

Doesn't take a genius to disect a synopsis:
- First Order tracks Resistance to forgotten base/defeats them: Empire tracks rebels to Hoth.
- Rey goes to convince Luke to join Resistance, latter is persuaded to train former: Luke travels to Dagobah, trains with Yoda.
- Rey is convinced Kylo can be redeemed: Luke is convinced Vader can be redeemed
- Rey is brought before Snoke, Kylo betrays latter: Luke is brought before Emperor, Vader betrays latter.
- Kylo tempts Rey to rule with him: Vader tempts Luke to rule with him.
- Resistance flees in defeat, there is hope still: Rebel Alliance flees in defeat at the end of TEST, there is hope still.

Wasn't expecting Luke to be an invincible wizard (Rey already is btw): wasn't expecting him to be a downie hermit who left the galaxy to the terror of Kylo Ren either.
The new 'heroes' are boring and have no development.

[Sormine]

You don't need help you just need Google. There are countless articles and videos out there detailing exactly how Star Wars has been politicised with a SJW/feminist agenda. But hey, if your happy to ignore it and enjoy the films for what they are then more power to you, you're not alone. But for some of us the constant women = good, men = bad/inept/impulsive messages get a little insulting after a while. And the blatant racism throughout the films is a disgrace.

And you still can't provide me with examples. Excellent.

Doesn't take a genius to disect a synopsis:
- First Order tracks Resistance to forgotten base/defeats them: Empire tracks rebels to Hoth.
- Rey goes to convince Luke to join Resistance, latter is persuaded to train former: Luke travels to Dagobah, trains with Yoda.
- Rey is convinced Kylo can be redeemed: Luke is convinced Vader can be redeemed
- Rey is brought before Snoke, Kylo betrays latter: Luke is brought before Emperor, Vader betrays latter.
- Kylo tempts Rey to rule with him: Vader tempts Luke to rule with him.
- Resistance flees in defeat, there is hope still: Rebel Alliance flees in defeat at the end of TEST, there is hope still.

Wasn't expecting Luke to be an invincible wizard (Rey already is btw): wasn't expecting him to be a downie hermit who left the galaxy to the terror of Kylo Ren either.
The new 'heroes' are boring and have no development.

Well thank you for providing me with an example of a person who thinks they know what they're talking about. Had you actually seen the movie you wouldn't have left out the major differences as they were crucial to the film. Not to mention you would have recognized the part where the plot is intentionally subverting your expectations by using what you already know from the other films to give you an unexpected twist. Congratulations, you made a fool of yourself through assumptions alone.

[draynay]

I finally saw it, I thought it was pretty good, and I hated Force Awakens.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I know TFA was bad, but at least he had a character arc, compared to the main protagonist, who, at this point is borderline mary sue.

id say she's a full mary sue like every other protagonist in starwars but she defiantly had an arc in TLJ if not in TFA.

[Torto]

And you still can't provide me with examples. Excellent.

I and many others have provided links to evidence all through this thread, which is more than the Star Wars apologists have done to refute it. All we get from you guys is "no it's not, you are just racist and misogynist nyahh!!!". I'm not going to waste my time providing examples to every soy boy whining at me. The very fact people are arguing over this crap should be enough to tell you the movie failed.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

There's more than "can use force", but that's beside it.
It's paradoxical that she couldn't beat Snoke, but Kylo can, but he can't beat her...

kylo has never had a legit fight with rey on level footing. there suppose to be a match power wise in the force as we see in the red room saber scene but kylo has alot more experience and training in it then rey does and would be able to do things she doesn't know how.

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Can we please stop using this false comparisation.

Episode 4; Luke is introduced to the Force by Obi-Wan, shown what you can do with it, (mind-trick) trained by him, explained to him open his mind to Force when blinded and only in the end, with the Force Ghost of Obi-Wan guiding him (something Luke first thought to be static through in his coms as visually explained through him knocking at the helmet upon first voice) he let the Force flow through him, aiding with the aim.

Episode 5; This already starts with premise it has been 2 years since the destruction of Death Star, ample time for Luke for self-searching and self-training and still he struggles with even the basics of pulling his Lightsaber out of the snow. After that, he has a training montage with Yoda, that by some accounts lasts anything between month to half a year (timeline gets very fuzzy here because there are clear time-shifts between his storyline and Han-Leia one, something even Lucas has addressed) and only now he has gotten good enough to confidently take use of the most basic of capabilities Force allows.

Episode 6. Another timeskip during which he has continued his self-searching and training this time backed by experiences with Yoda and is finally nearing his full potential. To reach this, it took 2 movies and the time inbetween of learning and hardship.

Compare this to following;

Episode 7; Without anyone ever telling her what to do or hell, what Force even is properly, Rey somehow knows how to Mind-trick people, how to Force pull objects better than someone whom has been trained since childhood and all within hours of being told what the damn thing even is. This many tried to excuse with ideas that Rey must've had some secretive past with training, but we all know how that turned out to be.

Episode 8; Well, only in day, two day's time Rey is experienced enough to raise entire rock formations with little effort, and that includes only one lesson from Luke that even touches what Force is.

Basically, lets be generous, this all happened in a week considering the assault of First Order on the Resistance base is intended to happen right after destruction of Starkiller base as, while Rey starts right where other movie left off. And the people on chased ship set up a very clear frame of time for us to follow, 18 hours I think it was.

So please, don't even start comparing the two.

there is no way there wasn't a time jump inbtween movies as we see kylo healed finn healed and we have a whole comic inbtween with phamsa doing stuff in space.

[Sormine]

I and many others have provided links to evidence all through this thread, which is more than the Star Wars apologists have done to refute it. All we get from you guys is "no it's not, you are just racist and misogynist nyahh!!!". I'm not going to waste my time providing examples to every soy boy whining at me. The very fact people are arguing over this crap should be enough to tell you the movie failed.

No, you haven't. At no point have you linked whatever you're talking about. And I've never called you a misogynist or a racist. If I were a psychiatrist I'd probably be writing down the serious projection you've got going on right now.

Also, Soy Boy? What are you, one of those weirdos on the internet that are afraid of beans?

[TheBeardedOne]

I've yet to see any complaints that didn't, to some degree or another, boil down to;

1> "Why are there GIRLS in this, and why are they GOOD AT STUFF."
2> "Why are there black and asian heroes? GAWD."
3> "My headcanon I made up says this stuff shouldn't have happened, and my overactive imagination is more important than the actual canon for some reason."

Yeah, a lot of people have bombed review sites for the above reasons, but the critic scores and box office returns tell a pretty different story, obviously.



Yeah, it couldn't be that I honestly liked the movie, as a long-time Star Wars fan, and felt it's moving the franchise in a direction it needs to go.

I think this is a bit narrow sited. I agree many complaints boil down to the reasons you just gave. But there are many issues with both TFA and TLJ that have nothing to do with them. Overall the movie didn't bomb in the box but that doesn't mean it didn't damage the series and it's base.

It is safe to say Disney doesn't quite know what it's doing with the series. Without inside knowledge it is hard to know wether this is a strategy or just incompetence. My gut tells me it is a bit of both looking at their marvel movies and how they have treated Star Wars so far.

Unfortunately the art of movie making is on it's last legs as the pendulum is swinging too far to tue business side of the equation.

On the topic of Kathleen, whilst she has been involved in some really good movies, she has also been involved in more than a fair share of utter trash. Most director's and producers do their best work earlier in their careers and with such a chequered record from her early days I have absolutely no faith KK knows how to create good films and has piggybacked off others for hits and fell down with them for their fails as well. Which is never a good sign.

[tyrlaan]

Typical smear bullshit I have come to expect from the Left on these forums. You should leave the character assassinations to Endus, he's better at it than you.

I am neither MRA nor misogynist, and I can rattle off 20 films I thoroughly enjoyed that had female protagonists. What I do oppose of post-modern Marxist feminism, which Kathleen Kennedy embodies and is permeating through the Star Wars films like a cancer. You probably don't see for obvious reasons.

Your posts draw these conclusions. It's not a smear when you deliver all the evidence to the table yourself.

But if you're interested in proving me wrong, please explain to me what said "post-modern Marxist feminism" elements are present in TLJ. If I can't see it, show me the light.

You don't need help you just need Google. There are countless articles and videos out there detailing exactly how Star Wars has been politicised with a SJW/feminist agenda. But hey, if your happy to ignore it and enjoy the films for what they are then more power to you, you're not alone. But for some of us the constant women = good, men = bad/inept/impulsive messages get a little insulting after a while. And the blatant racism throughout the films is a disgrace.

I believe since you are making the claim, you are responsible for supporting it with evidence.

Also, when I watched the movie, I remember all the characters fucking up in the movie, so I'm not sure where you got this women=good men=bad message. Also confused how you can say the movie is racist but also has a SJW agenda. Yeah, you really need to support your claims with some evidence if you want to be taken remotely seriously.

I and many others have provided links to evidence all through this thread, which is more than the Star Wars apologists have done to refute it. All we get from you guys is "no it's not, you are just racist and misogynist nyahh!!!". I'm not going to waste my time providing examples to every soy boy whining at me. The very fact people are arguing over this crap should be enough to tell you the movie failed.

How about evidence by telling us in your own words where these SJW elements are? Videos of random people raging on YouTube isn't really evidence, it's just confirmation bias.

And really not sure how the movie made so much money but "failed". I don't understand this need for people that didn't like the movie to spin this weird narrative that it's a bomb.

1> It's not women: women have been in SW since ANH. The problem is that most if not all women in the new trilogy are Mary Sues.
2> Racial diversity has been a part of movies for decades: the issue is that these days story and actor selection are completely dependant on it, which is an insult to superior actors who could've executed certain roles with more finesse. It's especially more ironic in a universe such as SW, where humans have to appear in all ethnicities, but there is no equal representation of difference in alien life.
3> If events occur that are not in sinc with proper canon establishment at all, it's more than fair to question and criticise it.

If you're a SW fan, why do you feel the need to berate a fellow fan instead of acknowledging and accepting SW means something different to me than it does to you?

Can you elaborate on your three points based on your experience from watching TLJ and/or privileged knowledge of the casting process?

I know your last question wasn't lobbed my direction, but I'll answer anyway since I've been active on this thread (and hell, maybe this will resonate with others):

People can like things that other hate and vice versa. Movies kinda work that way, and it's all good. What bothers me is when someone does/doesn't like something based on misinformation. Uninformed opinions will get a response from me. Opinions stated as fact will absolutely get a response from me.

It's why I haven't really gotten involved in conversations about the use of a bunker in the Crait scene or problems with how much/how little training Rey has gotten. But I will speak up when people cry Mary Sue, "SJW bullshit", "they added an asian chick to get the China audience", and so on, because there are no grounds for any of these claims (unless someone can prove otherwise).

[Jastall]

Lining up in front of it with small arms when you're facing war machines that are 100 meters tall is seriously stupid. It would be one thing if they had a legitimate reason to be manning the trenches like repelling ground troops but as it is their actions ran counter to the plan of hiding behind the door.

They were armed, the outrigger side had blaster cannons mounted to it, you can see them melt away as Finn flies up the beam.

The Rebels also took cover in trenches during ESB. As someone said, Star Wars in general goes for World War-esque flavor over any sort of realism or sense for all its battles and military tropes, so for me it's nothing new. Why else would the bad guys dress like Nazis while the good guys dress like GIs with shoplifted helmets, complete with ultra conspicuous radio backpack?

[Aurrora]

Plus, the films explicitly have Luke say that Rey is not just stronger than Luke, but stronger than Vader.

1) It doesn't explicitly say this. Also, the point at which Luke implies this he's still closed off from the Force("but I didn't feel you"), so how could he even know?

2) Can a force-user even accurately judge their own power? Kylo Ren and Rey are shown to be equally powerful(mind war/saber wrestling), but Kylo's biggest insecurity is that he doesn't think he'll ever be as powerful as granddad.

As an aside, "Mary Sue"'s a dumb term to use in any setting with magic, especially when the magic system is somewhat divine in nature.

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The Rebels also took cover in trenches during ESB. As someone said, Star Wars in general goes for World War-esque flavor over any sort of realism or sense for all its battles and military tropes, so for me it's nothing new. Why else would the bad guys dress like Nazis while the good guys dress like GIs with shoplifted helmets, complete with ultra conspicuous radio backpack?

In ESB there were grounds troops that they were fighting off. They also weren't trying to hide inside their base, but fleeing on transports they were loading outside, so they had a reason to be there.

[eschatological]

Typical smear bullshit I have come to expect from the Left on these forums. You should leave the character assassinations to Endus, he's better at it than you.

I am neither MRA nor misogynist, and I can rattle off 20 films I thoroughly enjoyed that had female protagonists. What I do oppose of post-modern Marxist feminism, which Kathleen Kennedy embodies and is permeating through the Star Wars films like a cancer. You probably don't see for obvious reasons.

See, you claim to not be MRA, but then use all their catchphrases, like soy boy, and "post-Marxist feminism." And then post links as your evidence of why this movie is bad, not to professional critics or even amateur critics (most YT movie critics I saw were neutral-to-positive on the movie), but to people expressing MRA talking points.

It's bizarre how hard you have to contort yourself into suggesting what you aren't when all you do is parrot those points of view.

. Now, I've actually written things before, and while none of them are movies, my (educated) opinion is that TLJ is well shot, well directed, well acted, and had a great thematic approach to Star Wars with the idea of "legends being a mistake." It was let down in its execution slightly, which was not so much due to its writing, but seemingly due to needing to do enough with every character. It would have been a fantastic movie if it just deep-dove on the Rey/Luke/Kylo storyline, and the Poe/Leia/Holdo storyline being the B storyline without bogging itself down in a new setting (the Casino) which felt like it was there to sell LEGO playsets.

[Sunseeker]

1) It doesn't explicitly say this. Also, the point at which Luke implies this he's still closed off from the Force("but I didn't feel you"), so how could he even know?

I agree that the movie did not say that Rey was more powerful than Vader. He said her power scared him in the same way Kylo's did.
As far as knowing, he was probably running on visual queues (the cracking rock, floating pebbles, etc...). And muggle instinct. It's a lot easier to be scared of Force users when you don't have it.

2) Can a force-user even accurately judge their own power? Kylo Ren and Rey are shown to be equally powerful(mind war/saber wrestling), but Kylo's biggest insecurity is that he doesn't think he'll ever be as powerful as granddad.

I've always been under the impression that force-user power varied depending on their mental prowess and whatever activity they were taking part in. Generally speaking the more you used the force, the more force you could subsequently access. Which I thought was on of the reasons the Jedi and Sith went after kiddos, because you basically couldn't become super-powerful if you never got any training, ie: their talent in the Force went to waste.

As an aside, "Mary Sue"'s a dumb term to use in any setting with magic, especially when the magic system is somewhat divine in nature.

My only peeve with people calling Rey a Mary-Sue is that even if she is she's less of a Mary-Sue than Anakin ever was. Luke honestly wasn't that Mary-Suey.

[Torto]

See, you claim to not be MRA, but then use all their catchphrases, like soy boy, and "post-Marxist feminism." And then post links as your evidence of why this movie is bad, not to professional critics or even amateur critics (most YT movie critics I saw were neutral-to-positive on the movie), but to people expressing MRA talking points.

It's bizarre how hard you have to contort yourself into suggesting what you aren't when all you do is parrot those points of view.

. Now, I've actually written things before, and while none of them are movies, my (educated) opinion is that TLJ is well shot, well directed, well acted, and had a great thematic approach to Star Wars with the idea of "legends being a mistake." It was let down in its execution slightly, which was not so much due to its writing, but seemingly due to needing to do enough with every character. It would have been a fantastic movie if it just deep-dove on the Rey/Luke/Kylo storyline, and the Poe/Leia/Holdo storyline being the B storyline without bogging itself down in a new setting (the Casino) which felt like it was there to sell LEGO playsets.

Here you go, come back and tell me she is a member of the MRA.



The feminist/SJW rubbish is just one of my peeves with the current Star Wars. The bad story direction is another. If it would make you happy I can link you dozens of reviews from Star Wars fans who agree that Disney ruined the Star Wars legacy. What they did to Luke was a disgrace. I can link you other reviewers who say the acting was either horrible or mediocre. Opinions are wonderful.

Regardless, answer me this. Is the current splintering of the fan base good for the franchise? And if not, who do you blame for it if not the writers, producers and directors?

[Archon14]

Is the current splintering of the fan base good for the franchise?

I would say it's potentially a good thing since the fan base is gigantic. If there was a small base, then there would be a risk of everything just falling apart, but with Star Wars there isn't.

Maybe it's time the fan base evolved, at least when it comes to fans of the movie universe. Since we're now at the point of "You are not a true fan if you don't hate 6 movies out of 9".

[I Push Buttons]

Plus, the films explicitly have Luke say that Rey is not just stronger than Luke, but stronger than Vader.

Lol...

You keep arguing Rey isn't a Mary Sue because Luke could do a lot of stuff in the original trilogy too; he couldn't (he could pilot, he could hardly do anything else until years of training and getting his shit kicked by Vader later in RotJ).

Now you are saying Rey isn't just way more powerful than Luke, but way more powerful than literal force Jesus Vader. All while doing absolutely nothing to hone said power, develop it, unlock it, etc. It was just given to her by the power of Mary Sue magic. She literally goes from no indication she can use the force, to "Kylo said I can use the force so I guess I am an expert now!"

This is addition to her extensive repertoire of being able to do anything and everything perfectly, better than everyone else (apart from Snoke, who by your argument is now apparently the strongest force user ever since he was stronger than Rey and she is apparently stronger than everyone else)...

Definitely not a Mary Sue though, no sir! Not with a character upward line like that (no character arc whatsoever).

And before you go on another tirade about muh mysoginy muh sexism because I said Mary Sue, Mary Sue is used for everything male or female, no one uses Gary Stu.

[eschatological]

Here you go, come back and tell me she is a member of the MRA.



The feminist/SJW rubbish is just one of my peeves with the current Star Wars. The bad story direction is another. If it would make you happy I can link you dozens of reviews from Star Wars fans who agree that Disney ruined the Star Wars legacy. What they did to Luke was a disgrace. I can link you other reviewers who say the acting was either horrible or mediocre. Opinions are wonderful.

Regardless, answer me this. Is the current splintering of the fan base good for the franchise? And if not, who do you blame for it if not the writers, producers and directors?

This video has 572 views. The author has 374 subscribers. Not exactly a mainstream person. What makes her opinion in any way qualified? Furthermore, why should I believe she's not trying to clickbait viewers into watching her incendiary-titled video? That's what the whole bottom of YouTube is, people trying to get clicks.

How far and hard did you have to dive for this video? Jeez.

[Torto]

I would say it's potentially a good thing since the fan base is gigantic. If there was a small base, then there would be a risk of everything just falling apart, but with Star Wars there isn't.

Maybe it's time the fan base evolved, at least when it comes to fans of the movie universe. Since we're now at the point of "You are not a true fan if you don't hate 6 movies out of 9".

Splintering a gigantic fan base by definition makes it smaller, you're contradicting yourself.

Kathleen Kennedy wants the fan base to evolve, this she has made quite clear on numerous occasions.

She is banking on the new, younger, increased female audiences will be just as fanatical as the older fan base she's discarded. I'm really doubtful.

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This video has 572 views. The author has 374 subscribers. Not exactly a mainstream person. What makes her opinion in any way qualified? Furthermore, why should I believe she's not trying to clickbait viewers into watching her incendiary-titled video? That's what the whole bottom of YouTube is, people trying to get clicks.

How far and hard did you have to dive for this video? Jeez.

Fucking hell, move goal posts much? I didn't know there were minimum view requirements to make a persons opinion any more valid than yours. How many youtube views did your review get? And trust me, that review wasn't hard to find at all. It was a quick search to prove the point, which obviously was a waste of time because none of you in this thread will accept a dissenting view that doesn't praise the movie religiously.

[Endus]

1> It's not women: women have been in SW since ANH. The problem is that most if not all women in the new trilogy are Mary Sues.

Translation: "aren't nearly useless princesses", apparently.

For a fun exercise, provide three named female characters in the original trilogy, other than Leia.

Or just take a look at this video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=ODgwL7DJ9dY

It's a rundown of all the spoken lines by women in the entire original trilogy, who aren't Leia. It won't take much out of your evening, the entire video's just a minute and a half long.

Women really WEREN'T a big part of the original trilogy.

2> Racial diversity has been a part of movies for decades: the issue is that these days story and actor selection are completely dependant on it, which is an insult to superior actors who could've executed certain roles with more finesse. It's especially more ironic in a universe such as SW, where humans have to appear in all ethnicities, but there is no equal representation of difference in alien life.

Not one person has provided any evidence of "stunt casting" people. Plus, this argument that there were "superior actors" only makes any sense if you're defining those "superior actors" as "white actors". It's not like the casting director was deliberately seeking bad actors, or something.

I really don't know what you mean by "equal representation of alien life", either. That there aren't ethnic differences within alien races? We don't see enough of any particular alien race to know that. That there aren't many aliens compared to humans? Star Wars is relatively racially segregated. The Empire and First Order were aggressively ethnonationalist. Humans also breed like rabbits. Or cockroaches.

3> If events occur that are not in sinc with proper canon establishment at all, it's more than fair to question and criticise it.

These basically don't exist. Things aren't in sync with people's headcanon, but they don't contradict the prior films' canon.

If you're a SW fan, why do you feel the need to berate a fellow fan instead of acknowledging and accepting SW means something different to me than it does to you?

I'm berating people for making indefensible arguments. If you didn't LIKE it for some reason, fine. When your reasons are things that aren't true, that's not fine.

I and many others have provided links to evidence all through this thread, which is more than the Star Wars apologists have done to refute it. All we get from you guys is "no it's not, you are just racist and misogynist nyahh!!!". I'm not going to waste my time providing examples to every soy boy whining at me. The very fact people are arguing over this crap should be enough to tell you the movie failed.

I've provided plenty of analysis showing those arguments are heavily flawed at best, just myself. I'm hardly the only one who has. Congrats on stooping to pointless insults, though.

And again; the movie is objectively a massive success. It's made a buttload of money for the studio. Claiming it's a "failure" is demonstrably false.

I think this is a bit narrow sited. I agree many complaints boil down to the reasons you just gave. But there are many issues with both TFA and TLJ that have nothing to do with them. Overall the movie didn't bomb in the box but that doesn't mean it didn't damage the series and it's base.

I don't see any such "damage" whatsoever. Are people whining? Sure. People whined about Jar Jar Binks. They whined about the new CGI in the re-releases. They whined about Ewoks. Star Wars fans whine a lot.

No, the films aren't perfect. But if you're going to claim the original trilogy was perfect, I'm going to belly-laugh and try not to spew crumbs all over my monitor.

It is safe to say Disney doesn't quite know what it's doing with the series. Without inside knowledge it is hard to know wether this is a strategy or just incompetence. My gut tells me it is a bit of both looking at their marvel movies and how they have treated Star Wars so far.

I honestly don't see this, at all. I think some fans don't know where Disney's going. I think it's not that unclear. They're providing a funhouse mirror to the themes in the original trilogy, scene-by-scene in some cases. The root themes seem to be that A> lone-wolf vigilantes going off half-cocked is a stupid thing to laud, and B> avoiding your darker impulses leaves you vulnerable to their attraction in moments of weakness. You can see those woven throughout both films.

Unfortunately the art of movie making is on it's last legs as the pendulum is swinging too far to tue business side of the equation.

Given how aggressively Star Wars merch was flogged for the Original Trilogy, this is a ridiculous criticism. It's always been about business. Lucas was always in this to make money, not art films.

1) It doesn't explicitly say this. Also, the point at which Luke implies this he's still closed off from the Force("but I didn't feel you"), so how could he even know?

He specifically tells Rey "I've felt this strength only once before", and the scene that follows at least very heavily implies that "once" was Kylo. Since Luke clearly met the Emperor and Vader, and felt their strength, either you're saying he's lying here based on no evidence, or Rey and Kylo are stronger in the Force than anyone in the prior films.

2) Can a force-user even accurately judge their own power? Kylo Ren and Rey are shown to be equally powerful(mind war/saber wrestling), but Kylo's biggest insecurity is that he doesn't think he'll ever be as powerful as granddad.

You're inventing headcanon so you don't have to listen to what the movie specifically told you. This is exactly my point.

The feminist/SJW rubbish is just one of my peeves with the current Star Wars

Seriously, I haven't seen a single example of this cited at any point, that wasn't boiled down to;
1> Why is a black guy a hero?
2> Why is a girl a Jedi? And why is she GOOD at using the Force?
3> Why is there an asian girl playing any character at all?
4> Why does Holdo have purple hair/why is a woman a general at all?

None of those make any sense.

Regardless, answer me this. Is the current splintering of the fan base good for the franchise? And if not, who do you blame for it if not the writers, producers and directors?

I blame the fans who are making up bullshit to be angry about. Particularly when they can't rationally explain valid reasons to be so upset.

Lol...

You keep arguing Rey isn't a Mary Sue because Luke could do a lot of stuff in the original trilogy too; he couldn't (he could pilot, he could hardly do anything else until years of training and getting his shit kicked by Vader later in RotJ).

Now you are saying Rey isn't just way more powerful than Luke, but way more powerful than literal force Jesus Vader. All while doing absolutely nothing to hone said power, develop it, unlock it, etc. It was just given to her by the power of Mary Sue magic. She literally goes from no indication she can use the force, to "Kylo said I can use the force so I guess I am an expert now!"

This is addition to her extensive repertoire of being able to do anything and everything perfectly, better than everyone else (apart from Snoke, who by your argument is now apparently the strongest force user ever since he was stronger than Rey and she is apparently stronger than everyone else)...

Definitely not a Mary Sue though, no sir! Not with a character upward line like that (no character arc whatsoever).

All of that is readily explained by "it's the Force". That solves every single complaint you've made, there.

You might not LIKE that explanation, but she's no more of a "mary sue" than Anakin was, or any particular force user for that matter. Typically, "mary sue" is presented as a character who has no negatives or flaws. Rey isn't presented that way. She's willful, pushy, obstinate, etc.