Agreed.
and Episodes VII and VIII killed it.
Categorically disagree. Even though the last two weren't entirely "my cup of tea", simply the inclusion of several original characters (and actors) was more than enough to preserve the franchise for at least another film or two.
Star Wars in 1977, and even The Empire Strikes Back (which many thought was even better) both caught lightning in a bottle—just like Pulp Fiction did in the early 90's, IMHO. Those films will never be equaled, but I'm not nearly as negative on the franchise now that the taste of the truly abominable prequels is out of my mouth.
I'll be able to survive on residual nostalgia, as long a Chewbacca, the droids, and even a couple of the new characters are around.
I mean, didn't you think that battle with Rey and Kylo Ren with Snokes' henchmen was a great scene? And there were probably a few others.
Having said all that, I also agree with Mark Hamill's sentiments on the direction things took, which should be familiar to any true fan at this point.
Star Wars can now be described as three generations of whiners wreaking havoc on a universe far, far away.
An entirely too knee-jerk and cynical "hot take", IMHO...
Are you saying that Anakin, Luke, and Ben/Kylo are not whiners?
At least the writers didn't do to Star Wars what the "experts" have done to the Star Trek franchise. I mean, if you want to talk about perverting and ruining an awesome original idea, the new Star Trek films epitomize that process. Utterly unwatchable, IMHO, to any fan of the original series, as they have totally replaced thoughtful drama with mindless action. The new Star Trek films uniformly suck green donkey d-cks. [Moderator, delete that last sentence if you must, but it's the truth.]
Everything after the first two is crap. Exponentially worse with each subsequent iteration.