I knew I’d get caught citing from an anecdote, I don’t want to do that too much because we’ll get lost in the weeds, will say those I know that saw it twice also don’t regularly do that, and I understand not liking it the first time but later it grows on you that’s common. But I don’t think I’m just regurgitating memes that’s a little unfair, the mystery box thing is how JJ writes and he has spoken publicly about that, and for the first film I don’t even mind that, it isn’t like the case of ANH when they didn’t already know they’d have 2 more bites at the apple. I think the movie is a fun ride, the performances from the new characters are very endearing, but as far as what they’re doing there’s not much detail, all pretty boilerplate and I agree with others saying it really would have helped to have just those deleted scenes to establish the universe in more of its own specific context, I’m expecting TRoS to be flashback city.
Just trying to break out of the binary thinking many fans get into. JJ=mystery box, TFA=ANH, therefore not much to offer. It’s, simply put, reductive. JJ has obviously spoken about his mystery box approach in the past, but, besides the fact that people often misinterpret what that even means, it’s unfair to always assume that the only thing going on in a JJ movie is a mystery box. I call it a meme because that’s what it seems like, as a point of analysis it feels shallow - like how people say his visual style is lens flares, when obviously there’s a lot more to it than that one quirk. And so, to my point, I think there is a lot to TFA itself beyond what mysteries it sets up (if any), and I think people too easily forget that. Now, if you don’t care for what it offers beyond the “mysteries and fan service,” fair enough, but that’s not all that’s there.