Fell free to have your opinion's my good man. Though it is somewhat telling that you accuse me of being the aggressive one when, by definition, negative reactions are the aggressive positions. I don't believe I've questioned anyone's right to an opinion, I have challenged some opinions, I believe that's how conversation works. If someone is talking horseshit then I challenge it. Poster X claims "it's unbelievable Han would be in that situation", I'm delighted to reply "Not really" and "why are you letting invented self-preferences dictate to you whether something is good or not?".
There's a huge dichotomy to those that dislike the movie, combining both the concepts of unoriginality and dislike for any new elements. It is no wonder that a common response to such people is "You're actually unpleasable aren't you".
I somewhat agree with you about Leia, but she's barely in it and I glazed over when she was on anyway. I think you have serious problems if a cameo sends you into rage.
I didn't get into a rage because of a cameo. After the movie ended, I sat there with a strong feeling of incredulity, not being able to understand how *that* was the best they could come up with.
It is certainly not typical of me to go on a rant with such a harsh tone, which could be interpreted as "irrational". Regardless, I was very honest in my expression and it accurately describes how I experienced the movie.
I really don't get why people are so positive about it…I really don't. I guess that my problem is that I have the misfortune of being too demanding with too high standards and that I expect the *impossible* from movies in today's era of mass consumerism, instant gratification and expected lack of intellectual effort from the consumer side.
If this weren't Star Wars, I simply wouldn't care, like most movies. But since it is, I can't shake the feeling of *them* having squandered an excellent opportunity. Then again, I guess that my "kind" is not profitable enough to cater to .
Anyway, let us not continue to defend our points of view because we will not get anywhere. You liked it …I didn't…and let's leave it at that.
@GG I'd really love to hear your 'valid' reasons why the movie is only a 3/10… You know, detailing each and every aspect of the film-making process and how each deducted point is calculated…
Here it is, and as I said, I have upped it to 4/10.
1. The major one is, so much is predictable and recycled content, I know what would happen before it even happened. Just so you get an idea. In parenthesis are what you know will happen already if you've seen previous movies.
When it starts the "new order" which is more or less exactly same as "the empire" is looking for a map. ( The empire is looking for a stolen drawing on a ship )
To avoid the new order getting the map, the brave young pilot gives it to a robot ( To avoid the empire getting the stolen drawing, Leia gives it to a robot ) I know he'd give it to the robot.
Robot escapes without any humans ( Robot escapes without humans )
The new order ( the empire ) will kill and destroy most of the population of the planet looking for the missing robot.
Robot is captured by some desert people ( Robot is captured on the planet by some desert people )
There is a young person who is very strong in the force but doesn't know it yet that finds the robots ( Person strong in the power but does not know it yet buys the robot )
some more major ones planet canon ( death star ), Han destroys shield generator with bombs ( Han destroys shield generator with bombs )
I can keep going... it just goes on and on. Do I need to say more about this part ? To me it is already -3 points off for this part.
There is almost no new lore or interesting locations. However the end location is kind of interesting where she goes up the stairs to find Luke. Still one new discovery is not enough for me in a Star Wars movie, known to introduce so many great new locations. -0.5
Interaction with different species is almost none existent, it was always a major part of the earlier star wars movies. Yes there is one scene where they talk to the some other races in a bar, and there is one scene where she gets some food tickets. But it is very limited. Here it is only Chewie and humans that has any significant part in the movie, where is the rest of the galaxy? -1
The lore always says jedi's need a lot of training to do even the basic things, Rey learns super fast and by herself without any mentor. -0.5
Even if the starwars movies had a lot of comedy moments, they always had serious villians. While Kalo Ren is like a comedian, sure you claim it is innovative, I claim it doesn't fit, in the legacy of such a iconic villain as Dath Vader or even Palpatine, this part never left room for comedy as all, the dark side isn't a bunch of none realistic comedian fools. This is subjective of course. - 0.5
The scene where Han Solo dies is just so painfully predictable and unsentimental, and you can't even see that the people is really sad about such a happening. It is also so so so predictable, you know what will happen before it even starts.
I think the acting is not good, you can't see any actor expressing true feelings, this was a very big part of the original each actor was really shining and dedicated to their role, and I thin in part this is because the characters are very unbelievable, they switch between being completely newbies who can't do anything, the next moments they are suddenly masters of what they are doing.
Major parts of plot, they are not even trying to explain with any reason, making the movie extremely unbelievable ? How did Poe escape, why did he escape without the map he was willing to die for ? How was the millenium falcon left to steal and it had been standing their for years with power on ? , how did none recognize it, how the hell did Han Solo show up and manage to beam them? Why didn't the empire catch it? Why did they leave the stormtroper they already were suspicious about alone with the very important prisoner ? How did a tie fighter manage to escape the empire ship? Why did the stormtroper general open the shield generator? I am sure she was not so afraid they would kill her so she would betray the first order completely. It just goes on and on I can add more if you want. -0.5
I can go on and write more if you think this is not enough, but it'll have to do for now.
If this weren't Star Wars, I simply wouldn't care, like most movies. But since it is, I can't shake the feeling of *them* having squandered an excellent opportunity.
^ This is exactly it. It's not like we have a choice like "OK, Abrams, nice try, great fan service and a nice homage to the classics but now let's get serious and do it again, shall we?".
Instead it is (for some of us) a wasted opportunity to properly set up the stage for a great new trilogy.
That's the painful part about it. It's kind of like a flashback to Episode I where GL also squandered an entire movie on inane drivel instead of using the opportunity to flesh out Anakin's character and motives more or his relationship to Obi-Wan and all that (see the other thread where we were debating such things).
You see - I think that discussing some of the more detailed stuff is of much more interest than the useless "piece of shit" vs. "bestest EVAR" crapfest. Neither is true, and even in the so-called 'perfect' Star Wars movie there is plenty of nonsense to discuss!
Question - are we past bothering noting 'spoilers' in this thread yet? For now I'll put up tags ...
Personally I liked the evolution of melee weaponry ... We had Grevious gaurds with their energy staff weapons, we know of Cortosis from the EU, and it was cool how both Rey and Finn had obvious training with melee weapons.
I also actually like the mirroring of several things from the OT and PT series, as it provides continuity. I liked it also in Jurassic World ... Sure it can be derivative, but I don't see that in how these elements were used.
For example, although Rey was good with melee, she was not skilled with a light saber ... And neither, really, was Ben Solo. He was powerful, but immature and undisciplined ... Throwing tantrums and thrashing with a weapon barely under his control. Meeting an enemy with any skills was a challenge, and then confronting a powerful force user (even untrained) proved more than he was ready to deal with.
I thought that the natural chemistry between Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, as well as their presence interacting with the newbies was a highlight that helped tie things together. And the ending - we know it was a cliff-hanger coming, and with things that late we knew that we'd have to wait for #2 to really get the 'Luke Story' - I liked it.
Here it is, and as I said, I have upped it to 4/10.
1. The major one is, so much is predictable and recycled content, I know what would happen before it even happened. Just so you get an idea. In parenthesis are what you know will happen already if you've seen previous movies.
When it starts the "new order" which is more or less exactly same as "the empire" is looking for a map. ( The empire is looking for a stolen drawing on a ship )
To avoid the new order getting the map, the brave young pilot gives it to a robot ( To avoid the empire getting the stolen drawing, Leia gives it to a robot ) I know he'd give it to the robot.
Robot escapes without any humans ( Robot escapes without humans )
The new order ( the empire ) will kill and destroy most of the population of the planet looking for the missing robot.
Robot is captured by some desert people ( Robot is captured on the planet by some desert people )
There is a young person who is very strong in the force but doesn't know it yet that finds the robots ( Person strong in the power but does not know it yet buys the robot )
some more major ones planet canon ( death star ), Han destroys shield generator with bombs ( Han destroys shield generator with bombs )
I can keep going… it just goes on and on. Do I need to say more about this part ? To me it is already -3 points off for this part.
There is almost no new lore or interesting locations. However the end location is kind of interesting where she goes up the stairs to find Luke. Still one new discovery is not enough for me in a Star Wars movie, known to introduce so many great new locations. -0.5
Interaction with different species is almost none existent, it was always a major part of the earlier star wars movies. Yes there is one scene where they talk to the some other races in a bar, and there is one scene where she gets some food tickets. But it is very limited. Here it is only Chewie and humans that has any significant part in the movie, where is the rest of the galaxy? -1
The lore always says jedi's need a lot of training to do even the basic things, Rey learns super fast and by herself without any mentor. -0.5
Even if the starwars movies had a lot of comedy moments, they always had serious villians. While Kalo Ren is like a comedian, sure you claim it is innovative, I claim it doesn't fit, in the legacy of such a iconic villain as Dath Vader or even Palpatine, this part never left room for comedy as all, the dark side isn't a bunch of none realistic comedian fools. This is subjective of course. - 0.5
The scene where Han Solo dies is just so painfully predictable and unsentimental, and you can't even see that the people is really sad about such a happening. It is also so so so predictable, you know what will happen before it even starts.
I think the acting is not good, you can't see any actor expressing true feelings, this was a very big part of the original each actor was really shining and dedicated to their role, and I thin in part this is because the characters are very unbelievable, they switch between being completely newbies who can't do anything, the next moments they are suddenly masters of what they are doing.
Major parts of plot, they are not even trying to explain with any reason, making the movie extremely unbelievable ? How did Poe escape, why did he escape without the map he was willing to die for ? How was the millenium falcon left to steal and it had been standing their for years with power on ? , how did none recognize it, how the hell did Han Solo show up and manage to beam them? Why didn't the empire catch it? Why did they leave the stormtroper they already were suspicious about alone with the very important prisoner ? How did a tie fighter manage to escape the empire ship? Why did the stormtroper general open the shield generator? I am sure she was not so afraid they would kill her so she would betray the first order completely. It just goes on and on I can add more if you want. -0.5
I can go on and write more if you think this is not enough, but it'll have to do for now.
Yes, I can understand someone giving it a 7 and removing 3 points for the recycled elements, I would say that's a fair perspective, just as would someone only taking 1 or 2 off for this, it's definitely an issue, but the extent of the issue would be subjective.
I disagree that there is no new lore - you have new versions of Stormtroopers, the changed status of the Empire forces, the ability for the force to be suppressed and left subconsciously dormant. But on this point, why do we need new lore? Isn't adding lots of new lore one of the reasons the Prequel Trilogy was so stupid?
I also disagree that there are almost no new interesting locations. All of the locations were in some way new. We've already seen desert, forest, jungle and swamp and city planets, I guess at some point you're gonna run out of new visual landscapes, but, factually, regardless of look, it was all new locations.
I disagree that interaction with different species is an issue. It actually wasn't a major part of the early movies, the two examples you cite are actually more involved than the experiences we get in ANH or ESB. You also forgot the beasts on Han Solo's ship. It was the Prequel which invented this whole alien diversity expectation, and the only reason it did that was to show off it's over-abundant CGI. It is interesting that you can so accurately parallel this movie with the OT and yet produce this point which suggests you have no memory at all about the early movies.
It's been covered multiple times in this thread, we, the viewer, have no idea what the lore reasons are for Rey to know so much about the Force, that whole story arc is a discussion point to take us into the sequel, not an actual design flaw.
You're fully within your rights to dislike the comedy aspects, I've no doubt some people will be deducting a point for that, however, many will be adding points for it, so it's kind-of a self-settling subjective element.
Yes, the Han/Ben scene isn't necessarily a perfectly timed emotional revelation designed to make you tear-up bucketloads, but, as I have said previously, I didn't get that emotional when Obi-Wan met Vader. In fact, the only truly emotional scene in any of the movies is when Luke faces down the Emperor in Jedi, while Lando zooms out the exploding Death Star, but that was the exception, not the rule. Some might argue that Luke/Vader in ESB is an emotional scene, not for me, it way too OTT for me, almost comical. So, with this point, you're deducting something from a Star Wars movie that has never been a Star Wars element, it was not part of the design to create hugely emotional scenes, so you shouldn't really be judging them for it. The main criticism here is that 'It's a bit hokey', yes, Star Wars is, generally, a bit hokey.
I really cannot agree with you about the acting. Everything you say is here is just factually wrong IMO.
Yeah, there are plot-holes... breaking news folks.
And, once again, we see a huge dichotomy in the reasons for displeasure, on the one-hand having so much knowledge of the OT that the recycled elements feel boring, but at the same time inventing things that never were in the OT as a justification of why some new things are bad in comparison. Suggestive of copy-pasting chinese whispers in order to formulate an opinion rather than the advertised "it's just MY opinion".
Well, you might have missed it, but I referred to all the six earlier movies. I actually didn't hate part 1-3 ( while I don't like part 1 that much ), so I included them as well, and I like all of them more than this movie, because they at least tried to add something new and interesting even if it was far from perfect.
Also what you are saying is simply factually incorrect, I am not sure you remember the original movie trilogy as well as you though, for example there was this guy called Yoda, there was Jabba the hutt, there were the Ewoks, all of which player very major parts. So to say that it was never a big part is just not right even for the original trilogy. There is much more, how about the snow monster which captures Luke or the bad smelling beasts they ride ? How about the bounty hunters or bartenders Han Solo encounters… how about the hide out of Jabba it is just full of them. What is the point to make a Star Wars, movie, to me all those amazing creatures Lucas made up is a large part of the enjoyment.
If you think the locations were new and fresh that would stand for you, but I will not forget Tatooine or Dagobah, simply because they were new and fresh when they come, and they had some story and lore on them. The planets here were just lifeless places for the action to take part. Of course everything is objective, but I don't think my stance are impossible to understand, neither is yours that they already did so many things so it is fine if they don't try to come up with something new and fresh.
If there is some magical explanation about Rey in the later movies, perhaps I might change my mind, but it goes against everything we learned in the earlier movies. To me it just appeared very silly. Actually, ok she was already trained by Luke, but her memory was put on hold and she was put on a deserted desert planet to wait for him. Ok, people might like this explanation, but the way she acted like a complete newbie and master at the same time still felt ridiculess to me. You can have a different view of course. Just like I can have it, but I think you can understand for now it is not perceived well.
Likewise acting is a subjectivy thing, sure you might have loved having so many comical and not at all "serious" characters which didn't make sense and didn't burn like Luke, Solo and Leia did back in the days. But I don't think it is good enough.
Huge plot holes, which they don't even bother about at all, sure movies will always have plot holes, but not giant ones which they don't even pretend to try to cover, they are just there to give a little deja vu and comedy. You are fine with that and don't think it needs any point deduction or anything, but I am not.
Also what you are saying is simply factually incorrect, I am not sure you remember the original movie trilogy as well as you though, for example there was this guy called Yoda, there was Jabba the hutt, there were the Ewoks, all of which player very major parts. So to say that it was never a big part is just not right even for the original trilogy. There is much more, how about the snow monster which captures Luke or the bad smelling beasts they ride ? How about the bounty hunters or bartenders Han Solo encounters… how about the hide out of Jabba it is just full of them. What is the point to make a Star Wars, movie, to me all those amazing creatures Lucas made up is a large part of the enjoyment.
Yes, Return of the Jedi was quite monsterful, but A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back were not. You had the Jawas, Sandpeople and then the Bar, Chewbacca and some bits and pieces, but it was mostly humans. Empire had the ice monsters and Yoda and… well, yeah. The new movie, if it was a copy-paste of ANH wouldn't be abundant with alien life-forms would it. Interestingly, it's the least rated episodes which have more alien variety. What you've just said is that it's crap because it doesn't have Ewoks…
Well, you might have missed it, but I referred to all the six earlier movies. I actually didn't hate part 1-3 ( while I don't like part 1 that much ), so I included them as well, and I like all of them more than this movie, because they at least tried to add something new and interesting even if it was far from perfect.
Yes, I've seen this before, the ol' "they were crap but at least they tried to be different" routine. People who juggle toilet brushes on talent shows are "just trying to be different", people who record random sounds then mix them into 'music' are "just trying to be different", people who invent absurd new gadgets to clean the inside of tyre treads are "just trying to be different", since when has "just trying to be different" ever counted towards the objective assessment of something beyond deciding between two items of equal quality? And, no, the prequels are... objectively... bad, a lot worse than the new movie.
You see - I think that discussing some of the more detailed stuff is of much more interest than the useless "piece of shit" vs. "bestest EVAR" crapfest. Neither is true, and even in the so-called 'perfect' Star Wars movie there is plenty of nonsense to discuss!
It is IMO a matter of decency as long as there is no spoiler tag in the thread title. If the thread is relatively long, I have the odd habit of starting reading it backwards from new to old posts instead of starting from the beginning. The danger exists that you could accidently read spoilers if you are not warned by the thread title. Until yesterday, I deliberately avoided this thread or any thread that mentioned Star Wars .
Personally I liked the evolution of melee weaponry … We had Grevious gaurds with their energy staff weapons, we know of Cortosis from the EU, and it was cool how both Rey and Finn had obvious training with melee weapons.
I also actually like the mirroring of several things from the OT and PT series, as it provides continuity. I liked it also in Jurassic World … Sure it can be derivative, but I don't see that in how these elements were used.
To me, this is a highly negative point. I see simply too many similarities that make it seem too much like a carbon copy. It just comes across as lazy movie making. I'd really wish they had been more original and creative and had come up with a fresh new story approach. (So much unexplored potential).
For example, although Rey was good with melee, she was not skilled with a light saber … And neither, really, was Ben Solo. He was powerful, but immature and undisciplined … Throwing tantrums and thrashing with a weapon barely under his control. Meeting an enemy with any skills was a challenge, and then confronting a powerful force user (even untrained) proved more than he was ready to deal with.
There are countless gaps and you seem to fill hem to make things work for you. I fill the gaps in different ways and apparently I am not so *forgiving* .
Ben Solo is shown to have significant power, especially when he is able to hold a blaster shot…a rather over the top absurdity if you ask me but "forgivable". Considering he is the main villain, it is plausible to assume that he has a *minimum* of lightsaber skills. Treating Rey as a powerful Force user is IMO too large a stretch of the imagination and simply not plausible. In all honesty, doing so sounds to me like post-rationalising IMO.
Regardless of how you want to rationalise that scene, the lightsaber battle wasn't even done well. At the very least, I'd expect to see a worthier spectacle. I admit to being a sucker for "awesome lightsaber scenes" and it didn't even manage to impress the "nostalgic child" in me.
I thought that the natural chemistry between Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, as well as their presence interacting with the newbies was a highlight that helped tie things together. And the ending - we know it was a cliff-hanger coming, and with things that late we knew that we'd have to wait for #2 to really get the 'Luke Story' - I liked it.
Personally, I didn't really feel this chemistry. Besides, the "coincidences" were just too much. Rey and Finn escaping in the Falcon that *happened* to be there and later Han and Chewie *miraculously* finding the Falcon.
If there is one thing that puts me in a foul mood is when I feel that my intelligence is being insulted. Unfortunately, this movie is guilty of this. I'd say that one of the main offenders is the rebel scene where they discuss how to destroy the new "Death Star planet". To me it came across as "children's cartoon level".
Another thing that I am "highly allergic" to is "silly/tough/smart-ass" talk and again, there was a lot of it in this movie. Example: Finn: "That is one hell of a pilot!"Poe: "Yoohooo!!!". Really? I mean, I ain't twelve no more. (I often forget that these movies are also meant to appeal to children and not just adults, unfortunately). I can forgive a small amount of silly small talk but there was IMO too much of it.
Yes, I've seen this before, the ol' "they were crap but at least they tried to be different" routine. People who juggle toilet brushes on talent shows are "just trying to be different", people who record random sounds then mix them into 'music' are "just trying to be different", people who invent absurd new gadgets to clean the inside of tyre treads are "just trying to be different", since when has "just trying to be different" ever counted towards the objective assessment of something beyond deciding between two items of equal quality? And, no, the prequels are... objectively... bad, a lot worse than the new movie.
......now rightly lambasted for being trash, the prequels got a lot of praise on release.
I don't think TFA is as bad as they were, but I definitely think that in a few years TFA will be viewed as an average film lacking any real soul and originality, rather than a return to top Star Wars form
I disagree.
Also I think you may need to look up the word objective.
It's the opposite of subjective basically.
What the heck, I'll even add some content to my 'opinion' - They were narratively appalling, had stilted acting due to the over-use of green/blue screen, had no continuity, terrible miscasting, outrageous scenarios, no likeable characters, they are the very definition of a steaming pile of shit. There have been countless fan edits which have tried to make them watchable, but each one, to a man, has had the problem that "you cannot clean a shit, each layer you rub off just reveals a new layer of shit".
They were good at creating a visual spectacle, the screenshots look gorgeous. They were good at providing some fairly banal but entertaining action scenes. They were good at creating a unique look to the cast and characters (wardrobe). The music was ok. And that's pretty much it. No, I wouldn't rate them 1/10, but I honestly would struggle to give them a score above a generous 6/10.
And these are not subjective issues. Sorry about that. Lets start off with this question:
Do you think Samual L Jackson was the correct casting choice for Mace Windu and that once this casting choice was made that Mace Windu was going to be written as the most sedate character in the entire series?
Fuck it, let your imagination run wild, give me your best possible out-your-ass subjective reason why do you think Samual L Jackson was the correct casting choice for Mace Windu and that once this casting choice was made that Mace Windu was going to be written as the most sedate character in the entire series?
I think most opinions here are honest on both sides of the debate. Each one I've read has valid points, whether I agree with them or not. Regards the "minority" who didn't like the film, lets remember the minority who didn't like the prequels…….
……now rightly lambasted for being trash, the prequels got a lot of praise on release. I don't think TFA is as bad as they were, but I definitely think that in a few years TFA will be viewed as an average film lacking any real soul and originality, rather than a return to top Star Wars form
Didn't the moderators warn you about excessive use of the return key? Oh, you're a rebel, gotcha.
The first episode of a series is always a tough reaction. I remember coming out of the theatre loving Jedi, but even as a kid I loathed the ewoks, I even resented having to collect them, they were like stain on my collection that actually soured my desire to "catch-em all".
When I came out of Phantom Menace I was in a state of "It's ok, I suppose". I was pretty meh about the whole thing. Yes, the pod race was quite fun, but I couldn't really find anything to talk about. It looked nice. I wasn't hating on it though. I went into the Attack of the Clones movie with a sense of trepidation and came out pretty disgusted but too immature in my knowledge of movies to know why, again, I put on a public face of meh, but siding with the crappy in any discussions. I like Christopher Lee, it's always nice to see him in things. I went to see Revenge of the Sith because it was supposed to have improved everything, and I guess it felt a bit better, but I ended the series with no love for it. As soon as I engaged with Youtube and could be exposed to real people's opinions I gloried in their shittiness. How nice it was to see people with correct vocabulary putting into words the true horrors.
When I came out of TFA I was perfectly content, well as perfectly content as I could hope to be, I wouldn't give it 10/10 but it's right back to what I liked about Star Wars.
When showing past reviews, don't forget the internet wasn't universal in 1999 and places like IMDB and Youtube weren't easy tools like today, you basically had the mainstream media and most likely paid reviews (or reviewers who liked the coddling and special treatment) in the majority. Also, when the original Star Wars was released it was completely crushed by professional reviews.
Lets say the lunatics giving it 1/10 off-set the family members of the crew giving it 10/10, you still have a very honest 8.5ish rating for this movie, and I doubt that will change too much with time - unless the second movie is crap. Don't also forget, if Empire Strikes Back had been crap, no-one would likely rate Star Wars anything more than another 70s curiosity.
^ This is exactly it. It's not like we have a choice like "OK, Abrams, nice try, great fan service and a nice homage to the classics but now let's get serious and do it again, shall we?".
Instead it is (for some of us) a wasted opportunity to properly set up the stage for a great new trilogy.
That's the painful part about it. It's kind of like a flashback to Episode I where GL also squandered an entire movie on inane drivel instead of using the opportunity to flesh out Anakin's character and motives more or his relationship to Obi-Wan and all that (see the other thread where we were debating such things).
For the new Star Wars, if all you wanted was a kind of reboot, with the classic characters, simple plot, some laughs, no depth or deeper meaning to think about and mindless action copied from the original, it'll be a great movie for those people.
If you wanted something new and fresh in terms of lore, some new insights about the characters you loved from the original, some complex relationship between student and teacher, a deeper story with some surprises, or none recycled action scenes, you are going to hate it.
This is exactly the crux of the problem. I am yearning for a mature story within the Star Wars universe and instead we get this mindless, simplistic and shallow product.
I guess we'll never see a character like Darth Kreia in the cinema .
Bethesda games are not among my top favourite RPGs. They have their appeal but I value things they do not excell at and I was once called a Codexian Troll for stating my opinion.
Didn't the moderators warn you about excessive use of the return key? Oh, you're a rebel, gotcha.
The first episode of a series is always a tough reaction. I remember coming out of the theatre loving Jedi, but even as a kid I loathed the ewoks, I even resented having to collect them, they were like stain on my collection that actually soured my desire to "catch-em all".
When I came out of Phantom Menace I was in a state of "It's ok, I suppose". I was pretty meh about the whole thing. Yes, the pod race was quite fun, but I couldn't really find anything to talk about. It looked nice. I wasn't hating on it though. I went into the Attack of the Clones movie with a sense of trepidation and came out pretty disgusted but too immature in my knowledge of movies to know why, again, I put on a public face of meh, but siding with the crappy in any discussions. I like Christopher Lee, it's always nice to see him in things. I went to see Revenge of the Sith because it was supposed to have improved everything, and I guess it felt a bit better, but I ended the series with no love for it. As soon as I engaged with Youtube and could be exposed to real people's opinions I gloried in their shittiness. How nice it was to see people with correct vocabulary putting into words the true horrors.
When I came out of TFA I was perfectly content, well as perfectly content as I could hope to be, I wouldn't give it 10/10 but it's right back to what I liked about Star Wars.
When showing past reviews, don't forget the internet wasn't universal in 1999 and places like IMDB and Youtube weren't easy tools like today, you basically had the mainstream media and most likely paid reviews (or reviewers who liked the coddling and special treatment) in the majority. Also, when the original Star Wars was released it was completely crushed by professional reviews.
Lets say the lunatics giving it 1/10 off-set the family members of the crew giving it 10/10, you still have a very honest 8.5ish rating for this movie, and I doubt that will change too much with time - unless the second movie is crap. Don't also forget, if Empire Strikes Back had been crap, no-one would likely rate Star Wars anything more than another 70s curiosity.
I think the spacing may be due to the Tapatalk app. It's certainly not intentional.
The original trilogy had a depth and "magic" which I've not seen reproduced since. (ROTJ lacked it in the mid-section).
Each to their own, bit I think the reaction to the prequels serves as an example of how it's too early to get a proper feel for the mass concencous on TFA.
When you treat a movie like a documentary, and give bad ratings because something doesn't quite connect or make sense, you've removed the fun. Movies are entertainment. I could reduce movie points because having sounds and explosions in the vacuum of space is ridiculous. So is having Dragons in Game of Thrones! Dragons don't exist! And then there's the issue of reducing points because of not understanding certain points of the plot? Did anyone remember A New Hope? Clone Wars? The Counsel? No one knew what the heck that was. Seriously who cares. Enjoy the movie, quit trying to perform surgery. Thank goodness you guys aren't trying to rate the Red Dwarf series.
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