People are going to warm up to this one. It’ll take some time, because it’s so different. But it will happen.
I think you’re right. I can already feel myself warming up to it a bit, definitely gonna have to watch it again.
I’m excited to watch again too. The funny thing is I guess I’m the opposite of everyone - the first time I saw TFA I just thought it was pretty good, with some issues, but I eventually warmed up to it and really loved it on my subsequent viewings. With TLJ it was an intense love affair from start to finish.
I’m the same, but overall less impressed with VII, and still not crazy about it. It makes sense from a business standpoint, but is stagnant to the point of being skippable.
TLJ I absolutely loved, and I’m weirded out by the fairly negative fan reactions thus far. Then again, I approached this expecting a Rian Johnson movie - which is what we got. I feel this is the first Star Wars movie post-OT which drops needless lore reverence and for the first time manages to use the rules of the well-established universe in a creative way that feeds meaningful character development which in turn supports a strong thematic undercurrent. Sounds kinda pretentious once you say/write it, but if you’re going to start nitpicking ‘power levels’ as if you’re watching Dragon Ball you are missing the point completely, and the point is great, nuanced drama. Just look at Snoke and Kylo Ren: it’s an incredible, tangled, crunchy mess of a relationship that completely explains why that character acts the way he does. It’s not easy to make someone sympathetic without having him be sympathetic (he’s absolutely pathetic by any measure), but it is achieved here seemingly effortlessly, and through interpersonal dynamics outside of the one between Snoke and Kylo Ren as much as through it.
These might be ramblings of a madman, but I’m really impressed by how this movie is written.