Re: China finally got to see “Star Wars” on the big screen, 40 years after its releas
Storytelling counts, yeah, but so does a sense of film history. I tend to think that, without exposure at a young age to a wide variety of different eras of films, people will only credit whatever is the most current style as being "good" (or whatever was current in their youth, and thereafter). I'm really glad my folks exposed me to a wide range of films as a kid -- B&W film noir and comedy, 1930s and 1940s big musicals, animation from various eras. They also tolerated my affection for 1970s and 1980s scifi and action, no matter how bad it was. (Though my mom would frequently complain that we "never saw movies about people.") They showed me classics from multiple eras, and as a result, today I can appreciate a much wider range of films than a lot of my contemporaries, if only because I'm not put off by less frenetic camera work, slower plot development, and older f/x. Instead, I take all of that in context and can appreciate it for what it is.
If the Chinese who saw the movie were underwhelmed...I'm really not that surprised. While I think Star Wars holds up today, its style is definitely not the current mold of blockbuster. Color timing is different, camera angles are different, editing is different, etc. As a result, movies feel different now, and if what you're most familiar with and/or most enjoy is the modern style, then yeah, the old stuff may be kind of ho-hum.