Re: Star Wars Episode VII
The PT couldn't help but disappoint. So much was expected of it from fans who forgot that the first film was just about a couple of kids on an adventure. They promised big, big was expected, and big they got... All while losing the heart of what made Star Wars great.
I think some of the expectations have now been adjusted and this next film will be better for it. I'm looking forward to Ep. 7 more than any film I've looked forward to in a long time.
The pre-release hype was fairly intense, as I recall. Once TPM came out, though, it caught people by surprise not merely because it wasn't that good, but also because it felt like a serious tonal shift from the OT. And it was. I mean, if you watch ROTJ and TPM back to back, you can see tonal connections, but TPM takes all the worst elements of ROTJ and dials them up to 11, while retaining only a smidgen of the best elements.
But here's the thing: once TPM was out, once fans had time to digest it and get over the initial shock, why then do they also strongly dislike AOTC and only grudgingly tolerate ROTS? I don't think you can claim "Oh, it didn't meet expectations" at that point. If anything, I felt like AOTC and ROTS were major steps up from TPM. So, if anything, I SHOULD have liked them a lot more. And, if I think back to it, I did like AOTC a LOT more than TPM (although there was nowhere to go but up...). With ROTS, though, it was this bittersweet end where it just didn't do what I'd hoped it'd do...but I was already prepared for that, given the previous two films.
My point here is that it's not JUST about expectations. One's expectations can fade over time, and one can appreciate what one got instead. Yet my disdain for the PT has actually only intensified the FURTHER I got from the original theatrical releases. Some of that is the wasted potential, but most of it is just evaluating the films for what they are, and finding them...wanting.
If anything, I'd say that, at least in my case, I was more forgiving of the films when they first came out because I WANTED them to meet my expectations, than I was bitter that they didn't. I really wanted to love these films, but no matter how many times I tried re-watching them, I just...couldn't get into them. They aren't Star Wars to me. They're some other franchise with the same logo and character names. I walked out of even TPM sort of....stunned. Not quite comprehending what had happened, but trying to figure out a way to think that it didn't suck. It was only over time that I grew to loathe the film. AOTC left me pumped after the cool action sequences, but ultimately wishing we could've seen more of the Clone Wars. I'd hoped we would by the time we got to Episode III. ROTS I left just sighing, like that moment when you recognize a relationship is over...and you can't even muster the energy to feel anything other than "God, what a waste..." That wasn't really about failure to meet expectations generated by hype. It was more that such a once-strong series had frittered away its good name.
I felt that the 3 movies should have been written together instead of 1 at a time. I felt they really didn't fit well with the OT. I don't think the premise of the movies were all that bad, but I really think Lucas should have drafted an outline for the 3 movies, and handed it off to a writer to flesh it out.
The three films don't really fit. The second two kinda do, but it feels like they're missing a chapter in between them. The first film is its own thing and seems to be completely superfluous. I've long believed that you could sum up the events of the first film in about 20 min of dialogue spread throughout the two subsequent films. All else is fluff and garbage.