On the contrary, I’d argue TLJ would land for more people if it was decidedly less Star Wars in genre/tone. Not that it would be better, but I think I think it would be more broadly appreciated if it owned the fact that it’s not a typical Star Wars story.
TLJ still tries to externally maintain itself as this classic Star Wars adventure, with quippy one liners from our spunky heroes, weird and wacky aliens, and of course the recycled imagery. The tone is there, the genre pastiche is there - and it works for the people it works for because beneath that surface, there’s much more going on. But if you don’t engage with the film in that way, I imagine it must feel quite pointless.
TLJ uses the Star Wars tone to inform its metanarrative, but a lot of it is about transposing classical ideals invoked by that tone onto a harsher reality. What does it mean to be Luke Skywalker after happily ever after? What does it really mean to fight for what you believe when the odds are stacked against you? Again I’m not saying it would be better, but the heart of the film would become more apparent to more people if it was heavy handed about “not being like Star Wars.” To some of my friends, TLJ was just a disappointing plot. And the plot wasn’t really the point, was it?
The deconstruction from the base of “Star Wars film” is what makes it smart and postmodern, but perhaps it would be more broadly received if it, like, tried to be The Dark Knight of Star Wars. Then I bet some 14 year olds* would have been blown away by Luke’s portrayal as opposed to thinking he was just shafted for bad reasons. Just a more obviously Not Star Wars affair to get people in a different mindset. More people would get into it for being different because it would feel different. I bet the people who like TLJ as it is now wouldn’t like it as much. Me included. But I would never know, would I?
This isn’t to say TLJ as it is, is at its core a bad Star Wars movie - I’d say it’s the only one in the ST with anything that builds on the OT’s themes. I just think it’s a shame Star Wars is such a brand, and not a series of stories now. TLJ leaned into the brand so that it could tell a new story. The Mando leaned into the old stories to be branded a little differently. I understand the mindset and it gave us TLJ, but I don’t feel as excited about the possibilities of the universe any more.
*not necessarily in age