You’re good, man! I guess we get a little aggressive sometimes over these opinions, even me. I totally get why people don’t like the new movies. I guess I just want to share why I like the movie because I hope other people can see what I see, and find a way for them to enjoy it as well.
From my own experience, I saw TLJ with a couple of friends my age, and my mom, my dad and my uncle, who have all been Star Wars fans since 77.
Most of my friends, some of whom were big fans during the prequels like me, really didn’t like it. My cousin, who is my age, did, he is a Star Wars fan but never was hardcore about it.
One of my friends who went with us is Japanese, and he really enjoyed it. He likes the Star Wars films, but he is more of a big film buff in general. Not just American classics but all kinds of foreign films and avant garde, obscure pictures. He knows more about films and film theory than most people I know. He really dug into the themes and such, and felt the movie had more to say than most blockbusters. I think he preferred it over TFA.
My parents and my uncle loved it. My uncle actually got really annoyed by some of my friends because he felt they had very surface-level reasons for not liking it, and felt they couldn’t admit they were disappointed that things they were expecting to happen, or wanted to happen, didn’t happen.
My sister and brother-in-law saw it later and loved it, but I’d say they’re casual fans too.
I actually saw TFA with my friends too, and one of them had read a whole leaked synopsis of the movie before he saw it, so the whole ride to the theater (which was like an hour) he was saying how bad it was going to be. Just priming us and shit. None of us really wanted to hear that. He sat behind me and I could hear him every once and awhile chiming it negatively. And as the credits rolled he was just talking crap.
This was the first saga film to come out in 10 years. I was sitting with my dad. Star Wars has always been a good part of our relationship, and I was just wanting to enjoy this experience with him. I was so annoyed by my friend, I turned around and said “Fuck you.”
He immediately shut up, and I felt so bad. I’d never really confronted my friend that way before. We got outside and I apologized and he did too, and for the rest of the trip back we had a civil conversation about the movie, good and bad.
I love my friends but for IX I’m just going to see it with my family.
Anyway, that’s my experience.