Should have known better

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2016)

Okay, there must be two types of Star Wars fans who see the universe completely differently. First, there are the children of the original trilogy generation, which includes myself, whom adore Star Wars as a keystone of our early development; as penetrating as any religion, if not more so. I saw all the original movies in the theater, multiple times. I played Star Wars in the schoolyard, and had the compulsory toys, games, accessories etc. Star Wars was a part of me and my friends daily conversation. That being said, we never read a Star Wars book or comic, nor did we dress up in goofy SW uniforms (except at Halloween). We balanced our childhood pop culture fantasies with healthy sports and activities. To us, Star Wars and the NFL were both cool. There were very few geeks that I was aware of. We knew immediately that Return of the Jedi was only half as good as the first two, mainly because the story really betrayed Lucas' need to pander to kiddies. I was 13 by the time of ROJI, and I needed my Star Wars universe to continue to get darker and more intense, not more sickly sweet.
Now, enter the second set. Geeks. I hate you. You have hijacked and ruined that part of my childhood Star Wars memories as described above. You have immersed yourself in fandom in a way that has lit up dollar signs for George Lucas, Disney and every other big corporation that has had a hand in reviving Star Wars for the geeks. You actually liked the prequels (or parts of them) as well as these last two installments. You read all the fan novels, graphic novels and whatever else; and you have PhDs in the Star Wars universe. Good for you. Just because you know about all these new characters and story lines doesn't make you a real Star Wars fan. You're just geeks if you don't know a good movie, Star Wars or otherwise. And geeks generally don't know good movie storytelling, you are too hung up on the video game and graphic components.
I watched a review by some geek group on youtube who praised Rogue One as being really good. It sucked. There is so much going on on the screen at any one time it becomes distracting, characters are underdeveloped, score is overused, and the whole thing is edited together at breakneck speed. And this is nothing new. This is what the video game/comic book/geek masses consume endlessly. No wonder the studios keep serving up the same old drivel. Watch Empire Strikes Back again. Note how much care is taken to allow characters to fill space and time. The pace is pitch perfect, and there are beautiful moments of quiet (not silence) that allow you some breathing room to absorb the story. Geeks, all I can say is, I hope you're mass influence is on the downswing. Oh, and you owe me my money back.