Eh, I think reactions will be different for generations to come who will be able to watch the entire saga one episode after the other. I mean, yeah, they might have expectations between each movie, but the time for them to build up any expectations will be hours/days/weeks rather than years to decades like many of us. Sure, not every kid is going to like it, but there are going to be kids who love it too.
Yes, but that’s precisely my point. TLJ fans in my view erroneously presume the distribution of movie ratings will somehow shift to a higher average, while I’m arguing that it’s more likely the distribution will become less wide around a very similar average. An analysis of the imdb ratings for TLJ show that the mean rating (6.9) and the median (7.0) are almost the same, which is solid evidence that the extremes don’t affect the overall perception of the movie, which stands as above average, but still the least liked saga film after the first two prequels.