I haven’t seen this film yet, but from everything I’ve heard it would seem to be an incredible let down (an understatement?) that tries as hard as it can NOT to be a Star Wars film by trying to be anything but. I get the impression that more than anything this needs a fanedit, a complaint that TFA didn’t elicit from me. So I guess main trilogy wise we’re 0/2 right now.
TFA: Although a love letter to Star Wars fans, and the most like the original trilogy since ROTJ, doesn’t break any new ground and is instead a “greatest hits” of the OT.
TLJ: A film that tries so hard to not be a Star Wars film it utterly falls flat on its face. It disappoints both fans and people who love good, well constructed storytelling with huge plot holes (some filled, most not), events that happen just because, and both fan favorite woefully underdeveloped characters being killed off just because. In addition, there is a lot more “humor” in this film, but rather than the dry situational comedy of the OT it’s been “Marvelized”. And look, I like Marvel films, but I don’t want their style of storytelling getting involved with this franchise.
So far there has been almost no meaningful or interesting change to the status quo, and most importantly nobody has learned anything or grown as a character. Luke grew more within 30 minutes of screen time in ESB than some of these characters have in nearly 5 hours. And it’s a shame, especially since I think that the teaser trailer to TLJ was one of the most beautifully done I have ever seen. It would seem as though the brilliant movie people imagined existing in between those moments never existed in the first place, but instead it was betrayed for what it really was: a nice short teaser made to generate hype.
As for people’s expectations not coming true, I don’t think that is the problem here. Rather, I think it’s just an average to below average movie that is not AOTC bad, but isn’t ESB good either, and tries to do so much that it doesn’t really do anything at all.
I was slightly disappointed by TFA, but all signs point to this one being my least favorite of the two so far. It will be interesting to see what people think of this film once enough time has passed; I think rather than it starting off with a lukewarm response and then being acclaimed years later like ESB it’s going to take the opposite trajectory. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see.