TFA and TRoS are still fun movies. They're both a mess in their own way, but I would watch TFA and TRoS over Episodes 1 and 2. Not that Episodes 1 and 2 are even all that bad, but TFA and TRoS are better.
I disagree with that assessment. It might be a difference of priority: I care, first and foremost, about the writing. Engaging story, solid worldbuilding, grounded characters, meaningful themes. If it has that, I'll overlook most other fuck-ups. There are series and films that looked like shit even when they came out decades ago, but I love them because they have the above.
Modern SW
looks good, but has
none of the above.
The prequels had some of the above. Not all, evidently; but some elements of excellence. That makes them better than the soulless cash-grab sequels by default.
Even with as much I as despise TLJ... I can't in any honesty say i'd prefer the Holiday Special. Even Holiday Special has a charm to it that is ok for the occasional every decade-or-so watch, but if you held a gun to my head and I had to sit and watch TLJ or the Holiday Special... i'll pick TLJ.
TLJ is the worst, most mean-spirited film I've ever watched. It's the cinematic equivalent of force-feeding people dogshit. I'd rather watch the Holiday Special five times a day for a week than watch TLJ
once this week.
I actually don't think TFA is particularly bad. It was an ok start to a new trilogy. Yeah, Rey is kind of shitty and a Mary Sue. The plot is similar to ANH. But it set up something at least decent.
It's completely empty. It's not aggressively bad because it isn't
anything. JJ Abrams with his "mystery box" nonsense. Just give people a bunch of empty promises, and don't bother to have any answers. To be sure, Johnson followed up on that with the worst shit imaginable, but even if Episode VIII had been a masterpiece-- then all the credit would belong to that film's writer, and none would belong to Abrams. The man did nothing but a hollow re-tread, but now with an unrelatable, poorly-written lead character.
Rian Johnson came in an subverted expectations that Star Wars would be good. TRoS tried to pick up the pieces and make... something out of it. It ends up being an absolute dumpster fire but still... oddly entertaining.
The way you call the sequels "fun movies", TFA "an ok start" and TRoS "oddly entertaining" gives me the impression that you are
way more forgiving of complete crap than I am.
Which is fine, but it doesn't actually make them good. It makes you tolerant of stuff that is bad. Which is, again, fine. But trying to convince people that crap is good because you're happy with it is... well, in my opinion,
not altogether fine.
I honestly think that overall, the ST is better than the PT. We were all having these same conversations around this same time post-PT... 20 years later, now we like the PT. Give it time, I don't think the ST will be remember in quite the same way, but I think time will heal some of the wounds.
I don't think so at all. The prequels were pretty widely liked. Sure there were detractors, but the biggest wave of prequel hate came after the fact, with the RedLetterMedia Plinkett reviews. Those had dozens of imitators. The bulk of prequel hate started there. See also:
The People versus George Lucas, which was released over a year later.
That wave of prequel hate passed. In fact, it was already on its retour by the time the sequels were made. But Abrams is on record saying that he only really loves Episodes IV and V, so he put practically zero prequel elements in TFA. Which was ultimately a miscalculation.
The sequels received criticism from the start. TFA was an empty bag (or "mystery box", if you will), so people were willing to wait and see. But still, an oft-heard thing about TFA was "it gets dumber the more you think about it". Which is never a good thing. And then TLJ pretty much broke everything. The most ardent defenders of the sequels are crybullies who love to shit on actual fans. (Pretty much a bunch of mini-Rians, you see.) That's not the foundation for a legacy. Sequel defence is based on spite, not love.
The prequels are going to continue to be seen as flawed but interesting, and the sequels may very well get completely over-written ten or fifteen years from now-- when Disney has turned SW unprofitable and sells of LucasFilm in a bit of "corporate restructuring". Whoever buys it will go for a reboot... probably keeping George's stuff, but nixing everything Disney shat out.
Frankly, I'm looking forward to it.