The critical element to movie story telling is Suspension of Disbelief. In order for the story to “take life” one must be able to immerse oneself into the storyline, the plot, and (I think especially) the characters. If one cannot do that one is reduced to viewing a “bunch of stuff that happened”.
Vader was too cartoonish and campy to be scary. Leia and Luke were cardboard and unsympathetic characters. I appreciated the Obi Wan character but I liked Solo best. Because Solo played a less prominent role to Luke I didn’t engage with the storyline as much.
So yeah - for me at least Star Wars was “a bunch of stuff that happened”. I enjoyed it well enough but never a diehard fan.
I was just telling my son this very thing yesterday at lunch. This is exactly right. I empathized with Luke Skywalker, of course.
Vader was too cartoonish and campy to be scary. Leia and Luke were cardboard and unsympathetic characters. I appreciated the Obi Wan character but I liked Solo best. Because Solo played a less prominent role to Luke I didn’t engage with the storyline as much.
I liked Han Solo quite a lot, but I had more difficulty imagining myself as him. He was a bit too reckless and greedy, but I did like his willingness to play dirty when necessary. I resonated more with the Young Idealist back in those days.
So yeah - for me at least Star Wars was “a bunch of stuff that happened”. I enjoyed it well enough but never a diehard fan.
Absolutely adored the first one, liked the second, and disliked with increasing levels of dislike, all the rest.
Anyways, I see your point.