Anchorhead said:
Everything comes across as a bit too much.The only thing that I can think of is the space slug but aside from that the story telling, character portrayals, themes etc. were elevated as any continuation should.
No arguments here. Fact is, I never wanted a continuation or any character growth. As I sat in the theater every week in 1977, Star Wars was perfect. It had a beginning, a middle , and an end. I never once gave any thought to a continuation of the story. It only makes sense that the continuation (eventually) disappointed me. It’s the same reason I’ve never seen the sequels to ALIEN, Jaws, or Back To The Future. Those weren’t stories that needed to be continued. They were closed when I walked out of the theater.
Rogue One, on the other hand, also works as a stand-alone. It’s familiar, but it doesn’t change the 1977 characters. When I’m watching it, I imagine Luke and Co showing up in the Death Star and Yavin only a couple of weeks later. I didn’t expect that emotion, but it’s been a really nice surprise. For me, the two films fit together perfectly.
In the interest of “getting it”, the disappointment you feel with Rogue One is the same disappointment I’ve been feeling for 37 years.
For TESB, there were three years since the previous film in real time and in story time. All the characters had changed int the process. Yes, Han had lost that edge, but perhaps that is what spending three years with Luke and Leia will do. As for Vader, he was always higher ranking than any starship commander. He was under Tarkin and answered to the Emperor, but in TESB, he is hunting rebels and is in command of a starfleet. There is an admiral, Vader is over the admiral. Pretty much where we see him in the opening of ANH before he joins Tarkin on the Death Star. I have never seen anything about TESB that made it not fit with Star Wars. The dialog even indicates that Hoth is not the first place they went after Yavin IV, providing for a lot of untold adventures. I can see if you find the story less enthralling than ANH and I really like how you find Rogue One to be the closest to the original, but your stated reasons for not liking TESB are pretty weak.