I think there’s something inherently stupid about the idea that everything holds up over time as long as you watched it at a young age, and by the same token inferring that young people can’t appreciate films that are older than they are. Kids buy into all kinds of garbage, that’s just part of life. Fads pass and franchises gather dust. But generally people mature and develop a taste for things that are well written and well acted, the key ingredients in any sort of lasting cinema whether it’s a landmark or not.
This.
I was born in '87. I watched and liked the prequels when they were still relatively new. I also used to watch and like a great many movies and TV shows I now look back on as unadulterated crap (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show; Mutant X; most of Andromeda; the Friday the 13th movies; etc.). Conversely, I also love a great many films I never would’ve appreciated in my teens (most anything by Ingmar Bergman, for one). While it does hurt to an extent to see something I once dearly loved turn to shit with the passage of time, I don’t feel any need to pretend that it isn’t shit.