I watched TFA again yesterday for the first time since the immediate post-BD release “I’M GOING TO WATCH THIS EVERY DAY FOR A WEEK” binge, and I’m now totally firm in my belief that the whole OT pastiche thing that’s getting so much flak was the right way to go. It works so insanely well as a relaunch for the brand while still fitting into the existing saga rather than being a true reboot. To restate what myself and a thousand others have said countless times before, it’s going to be a problem if the entire sequel trilogy is like this, but for the first movie back after a long gap, a cliff notes version of why Star Wars is great was really the perfect way to get new people interested in Star Wars. All of this pissing and moaning about originality seems to miss or ignore the reality of where the franchise was in 2012 when Disney bought it, which was that the prequels were a bummer and no one apart from the true believers really gave a shit anymore. TFA was incredibly warm and welcoming and inclusive, and I think that trumps originality given the circumstances.
Lord Haseo said:
Harrison didn’t have any standout moments in terms of acting in ROTJ. Even the “worst” acting in TFA is on par with his best in ROTJ. Plus his acting in his scenes with Leia and his scene with Ben is perhaps the strongest we’ve seen Harrison in a Star Wars film
Also, this was well-stated.