A New Hope worked great for the reasons Baby Lee spelled out on top of it being an almost textbook example of the monomyth but gave us characters we could identify with beyond Luke as the hero archetype. Han, Leia... maybe even Threepio if one was super campy and a know-it-all.

Empire Strikes Back was a quality sequel which would stand on its own but also added to the storylines of characters people cared about from ANH. Return of the Jedi was flawed but it completed the story arcs and delivered on the name of the series itself: Star Wars.

Did Force Awakens have any of the elements that made ANH good?

Put it this way: if TFA came out, wth no SW history (as if it never happen d), would anyone be talking about "franchising" the concept?

Right. As it stands, she’s lived about 60-70 years with no legit force training.

That scene was just horseshit.

Fair point. Probably not. Which is why you don’t crap all over the legacy of your $4 billion toy.

added to that she gave on her son and didn't face Ben during the Walker/cave scene. It hlwas big time bullshit when she didn't Force Lift the boulders but Rey a true beginner lifted said rocks easily.

Not really.

The villains paled in comparison to Tarkin and Vader, the space fight scenes didn't hit the same notes, Rey didn't have Luke's likeability and the whole thing felt too calculated.

Decided to watch it again this weekend for the first time since it was on Netflix and I needed something to do while I grilled. What a horrible, horrible movie. Bits here and there that were better than I remembered, but overall, I'd grade it about a D+.

ROFL

At one point the positive reviews from users on RT were from stalwart science fiction fans A. Lincoln, A. Jackson, and T. Jefferson.

Haters weren't the only ones bombing it.

The movie sucked. The excuses are just getting lamer and lamer.

I think I would rather be forced to watch three hours of Jar Jar in his own movie rather than watch this piece of shit again.

They forgot fame turned Carrie Fisher into a lifelong drug addict that
ended her life due to overdose.

How do you know that was the first time she faced danger? She'd been living alone for most of her life and, based on the way she fought, i thought it was pretty clear she'd been facing danger for most of it and has learned how to defend and take care of herself - the hard way.

Everybody alludes imperial soldiers. It's the oldest star wars joke in the book

Luke was a farmer, yet successfully fought off fully trained tie pilots and used the force to successfully target a improbable hole in the deathstar with about 12 seconds of training.

Star Wars hasn't changed, you have.

McGregor was great as Obi Wan. The rest... ehhh.. I get it. It was ambitious. Lucas wanted to parallel the fall of a noble republic from within due to fear with the fall of an individual hero from the same causes. A great theme.

The execution was no so much. I don't think the prequels are awful, I just think certain aspects and decisions made were cripplingly bad.

God, I hope they don't bring Obi-wan back. Between making Luke a coward, Han a dead beat dad, and Leia the worst general of all time, I'd rather not see them wipe their butts with any other characters.

I never did any of those things.

I just said the movie sucked.

I didn't bash all the prequels. I think Phantom Menace is under-rated, and I think Ewan McGregor was awesome as Obi-wan.

The Last Jedi was SHIT. I'm not a big Star Wars fanboi like you. I'm just a guy who saw the movies, and had varying opinions. I thought it was impossible to make a Star Wars film I would hate. I really did. Rian Johnson is a pioneer.

Don't care. She's boring. No weaknesses. No flaws. Awesome at everything.

She's the most noble, she's the best fighter, she's the best pilot, she's the best strategist... she's the best at EVERYTHING.

Luke spent half a movie getting clowned by a muppet.

Then he had to spend another half of a movie getting clowned by this power fantasy character.