See, I think my feelings about the prequels are similar to what you were saying about the newer Trek series in your reply - whatever else you say about them, they don't capture the things I really liked about Star Wars. (Also, they had bad acting, poorly used special effects that led into boring action scenes, terrible treatment of way too few female characters, racist stereotypes and blatant cultural appropriation, and incoherent plot and characterization that couldn't hold themselves together thematically. But *fundamentally* I dislike them because they don't feel like Star Wars.)
Whereas the sequel trilogy - for all its flaws, and whoo-ee did it have flaws - does at least feel like Star Wars to me, and it feels like it was made by people who loved Star Wars for the same reasons I do, and who all had a ton of fun in the process. And the things I like about VII and IX are definitely *despite* J. J. Abrams' favorite plots being smeared all over them - but he always could make a movie that felt like a Star Wars movie (for example: the Star Trek reboots. :P)
I mean, a lot of it is probably that I went into the PT with high hopes and grand expectations only to have them repeatedly smashed into the floor, whereas I went into the sequels with zero expectations and very few hopes and they didn't do any of the things I was horribly dreading, which probably isn't fair. But I also think the sequel trilogy itself wasn't trying as hard to be amazing and groundbreaking as the PT was, it was just trying to make fun space movies and retread the OT for a new audience, which meant that when it too failed it failed more softly.
(And, really, the OT was *also* a godawful mess in a lot of ways; we just watched ESB and I have realized the reason I always leave during the so-beloved Han/Leia scenes isn't that I'm too ace for it, it's that Han *never* stops when she says "stop" or gets out of her space when she acts uncomfortable, and I can't read that as charming even when I'm supposed to. *Vader* has more respect for her bodily consent. I am starting to think the Falcon was constantly glitching in that movie because L3-37 was trying to protect Leia from Han. Auuugh. And the timeline! The timeline makes NO SENSE. Anyway.)
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Whereas the sequel trilogy - for all its flaws, and whoo-ee did it have flaws - does at least feel like Star Wars to me, and it feels like it was made by people who loved Star Wars for the same reasons I do, and who all had a ton of fun in the process. And the things I like about VII and IX are definitely *despite* J. J. Abrams' favorite plots being smeared all over them - but he always could make a movie that felt like a Star Wars movie (for example: the Star Trek reboots. :P)
I mean, a lot of it is probably that I went into the PT with high hopes and grand expectations only to have them repeatedly smashed into the floor, whereas I went into the sequels with zero expectations and very few hopes and they didn't do any of the things I was horribly dreading, which probably isn't fair. But I also think the sequel trilogy itself wasn't trying as hard to be amazing and groundbreaking as the PT was, it was just trying to make fun space movies and retread the OT for a new audience, which meant that when it too failed it failed more softly.
(And, really, the OT was *also* a godawful mess in a lot of ways; we just watched ESB and I have realized the reason I always leave during the so-beloved Han/Leia scenes isn't that I'm too ace for it, it's that Han *never* stops when she says "stop" or gets out of her space when she acts uncomfortable, and I can't read that as charming even when I'm supposed to. *Vader* has more respect for her bodily consent. I am starting to think the Falcon was constantly glitching in that movie because L3-37 was trying to protect Leia from Han. Auuugh. And the timeline! The timeline makes NO SENSE. Anyway.)