Meh, didn't bother me much. I liked the movie though. And the kids wanted to see it again, so we went yesterday for a second time. And I actually enjoyed it even more. It's Star Wars. I don't look for a lot of originality or anything beyond light entertainment.

Perhaps she really is some sort of technical wiz, but for the sake of the story I hope that's not what they plan to go with. Still even so, I'd like to think that operating a space craft in the star wars universe is too complex for even somebody like that to figure out by only scavenging bits and pieces from other downed space craft, even if she could figure out how the various pieces worked. Perhaps that too was force enhanced? Can the force do that? That is, figure out how to operate a device/craft with no prior knowledge? You know, as opposed to only enhancing her piloting through the anticipation of her pursuers' actions and the heightening of her senses. Ie, the first awakenings of the force in her like you mentioned.

I don't think it's obvious that she's Luke's daughter no, but hell he does look at her in a weird way. By the way that scene gave me the chills! The chills man!
Three possibilities that seem equally likely to me: she's his daughter, she was one of his students that miraculously got away or, and this is the one I'm hoping for, she's actually the one who killed all of his students and her memory got somehow wiped in the process.

I'm one of those, that's why I'm playing instruments you can hardly find teachers for anyway, I still need an hour or so to get to know the instrument before I can play tunes on it though and way longer to master it.
Don't forget, that the Tie Fighter pilots are the creme de la creme of the empire, I even had the feeling, that the movie actually hinted at the excellent old Tie Fighter video game, but that could just be me.

Seriously, you can't compare an X-Wing to the Falcon.
X-Wings are dedicated fighters, built for fast and intuitive flying while the Falcon is a heap of various probably ancient trash parts hammered together in a lovely fashion. Flying this thing must need a bloody lot more knowledge of it than something from a series of fighters and it's often made clear in the old trilogy, that only Han and Chewie can operate this thing without it acting up too much and ending up as a smear on an asteroid. The Falcon always was a lovely reference to those old and reliable cars you have to know inside out to be able to operate at all but are surprisingly good if you have a certain symbiosis with it.
Ray's flying abilities are ridiculously perfect, especcially in the Falcon. I would have accepted giving her an X-Wing and a few hours of training to be enough with a supernatural talent like the one from Luke, but not just like this.

If you manage to find a digital version of the old trilogy that has Luke's father at the end again instead of Hayden Christensen, please tell me! Did they edit this special edition crap even further for the BD-release? I miss my old VHS tapes, the DVDs are inferior thanks to the later edits. :/

Yeah, I liked that scene as well. Here's why i think she's Luke's daughter:

- she's left alone on Jaaku and is waiting for her family to return (has only dim memory of them, from what I understood). Luke disappeared years before (this is probably the most tenuous of the connections I saw, but still, it's there).
- she's extremely strong in the Force. Just like Luke (and his family line).
- Luke's lightsaber called out to her.
- she's a natural pilot and mechanic just like Luke.
- during her battle with Kylo Ren, the lightsaber goes to her and not Ren when the two of them are struggling to call it with the Force.
- as you noted, there seems to be more to that final scene than her just finding Luke.

Why not both? ;)

I can turn that around on you and say the x-wing is the equivalent of flying an advanced jet fighter of today. Takes a lot of skill and expertise to operate one. This would make a lot more sense than believing a sophisticated military fighting machine could be easily learned in a couple hours. IMO, anyway.

A fair point. But as I've said before, if you dig too deep (actually, you really only need to barely scratch under the surface) in the Star Wars movies, the whole thing falls apart. I don't have any trouble suspending my disbelief for this. Hell, there are far more serious issues with the movie as far as I'm concerned and I'm willing to let those go as well.

*edit* Ugh. Spelling.

Depending on the next episodes, this may not have been a bad move. Kylo Ren isn't too bad if you take him for what he is and I sincerely hope, that Kylo Ren isn't the Vader replacement he wants to but obviously fails to be, that there'll be a way more menacing evil one around and I hope that he will trash this wimp without hesitation.
It's just too obvious that he is no Vader at all with his hissy fits. Vader was a f***ing control freak overlord and not some sociopathic teen with issues and a worshipping complex.

Hmm yes, the lightsaber going to her is probably the strongest indication of her being his daughter. That was a silly and weird part of the film though. Not the vision part, but the finding the lightsaber in the chest part where, presumably, anyone could've gotten to it. I felt like something was cut from the film there that might've added some extra needed context. Also, that old alien lady's comment about "them not coming back" seemed unusually specific :-\ She knows who Rey is I'm sure.

Still, perhaps she is all three! his daughter, his student and the one who wiped out all of the students. Luke couldn't bare killing her, and instead mind blasted her or something. He then despondently exiled himself to await her inevitable return to him while he tried to figure out what to do, or something to that effect. Problem is she's a bit young for this version. Though I can't remember whether it was somewhere specified how long Luke was missing at the start of the film. Presumably long enough for the First Order to become a real threat, in which case it shoots this theory out of the water I'm afraid :P

If you're going to go down this route, you're going to have to suggest a mother, and it all gets a bit difficult there.

A guy named Harmy made that Despecialized Edition for his little brother, has put 5 years of work into it. You are supposed to own the blue ray edition if you want to download that particular edition, they do not want to support piracy(also don`t want to get sued by disney/lucas I guess)

here is an 20 min in depth introduction in to his work, also you would be surprised how many changes sneaked over the years and dozens of editions into the orig. Trilogy. It really has become a mess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXifjbxZDAM

Despecialized Edition
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yLsvexWBVM8IYSGopKuSfsGk5YIgCwQWd23bqb5ryD4/pub
Video how to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEvZ-rKdYQY&feature=iv&src_vid=QXifjbxZDAM&annotation_id=annotation_1457097507



Also I found this DELETED SCENE from EPISODE I, it`s really awesome :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLACxMXBRhM

That would be real interesting, but I'm afraid she's too young for that. Who knows, perhaps not? The timeline of Luke's disappearance isn't clear. I can't decide whether or not the strength of the First Order can reasonably say something about how long Luke has been missing.

Leia :-O

Hey, an incest kiss was already in the movies.
On a serious note, Luke could have had any woman after the war, so maybe there'll be an introduction of her later.
My first thought was, that Rey is Ben's (Kylo Ren's) sister somehow.

Nah, she was too young. She most likely was the only one surviving the slaughter thanks to not being around thanks to her age and was abandoned for her own protection. I guess Luke relied on her jedi inheritage to somehow get along.

Most of all, Luke at least had an established experience as a pilot. It's mentioned at least twice in the movie that he used to fly and hunt in some one-man craft in Beggar's Canyon. Sure, it's not exactly training for flying a fighter in space, but it's something.
I have no idea where people get that from, or how that would work. Nothing indicates that, and we see her in flashbacks as a little kid being left on Jakku.