I will admit that I’ve only been absolutely destroyed by how devastatingly bad a picture is a handful of times. One was CR 2006. One was Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. One was TFA. And then there was what happened to poor Speed.
A common thread for all these films is that they are updating the look and feel of a much older property. Not having much history with the Bond franchise, I didn’t mind Casino Royale and it seemed competently made. KotCS was a disappointment on much more than the visual style of course, but the new look and feel of TFA was expected since the final trailer, for me at any rate. I remember the moment when I had to adjust my expectations: After watching the trailer, my brother and I looked at each other and knew that this wasn’t going to be a return to the used-universe aesthetic of the originals, no matter what JJ had promised. Everything about the production looked modern, slick, and CG’d. Everyone’s had time to get used to the new look of Star Wars, but it was quite a disappointment to see such an iconic look be sublimated into a film for modern sensibilities. Were my expectations unrealistic? Absolutely. I think it’s important to appreciate a work of art as it exists in the present day, and not hold it to the standard of a time long gone. After all, if Star Wars was made today you can bet that it would use CGI and the cinematographic shorthand of the time.