JJ is just a (talented ?) fan boy who wants to repeat things we already know. I prefer a bad yet daring movie (VIII) to a more or less good but safe and unsurprising one (VII)
How exactly is a film that lazily retells the story of TESB virtually beat by beat (except for one slight detour to the finale of ROTJ) a “daring movie”?
I don’t know because I haven’t seen that movie yet.
TLJ was very good though.
It’s funny, my mom had the exact same complaint (“It was just Empire with a little bit of Jedi thrown in!”) but none of the rest of us saw that at all. At least, it wasn’t a nearly-beat-for-beat rehash the way TFA was of ANH (and I say that as a big fan of TFA).