I feel like we’re really rationalizing this film in both directions. We’re either making out to be far better than it actually is, or we’re making it far worse.
Perhaps. I wasn’t moved too deeply or frequently by what I saw, and that’s my personal measure for a film’s quality. TFA didn’t make me feel much of anything either way, which surprised me because that’s what Abrams excels at. If you look at the majority of his work, he’s a master at plucking the heart strings, and he had tons of raw material to work with.
There were plenty of nods to the originals, but I feel like it was a wasted opportunity to bridge old and new.