The charm of low expectations

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2016)

Let's first make it clear i'm not a devout Star Wars fan. But like the rest of mankind I do like the old trilogy a lot. I also hugely enjoyed the phenomenal Nintendo Gamecube games. So, i can still say I am a fan. The second trilogy was disappointing and lowered the status of the franchise. Still, watching it a year back, i couldn't say I wasn't entertained by the second and especially the third movie. I don't take a Hollywood product too serious. My expectations for The Force Awakens weren't that high due to the previous trilogy and maybe that's the reason The Force Awakens was a pleasant surprise to me.
In retrospect many people seem to regard the first trilogy with a reverence that appears religious. Often they seem to forget that those movies had their flaws and goofs too. When I see the shitstorm of negative reviews here I get the feeling too many people are plain drunk of nostalgia. Most of these reviewers were young when they initially saw the original trilogy. Now they are adults who vent on IMDb. How would you have rated TFA when you would be 10 years old instead of 40?
Face it, Star Wars always has been a movie that felt like it had been made for kids. Cool swords, cool spaceships, good versus evil, not something that was designed to get your adult braincells racing. Knowing this it was easy for me to enjoy TFA. The movie clearly payed homage to the first movie, sometimes even a bit TOO much. Despite the lazy death star reincarnation and the very clichéd looking dark emperor (generic Hollywood CGI ogre number xxxxxxx) I felt like the movie was fine nostalgic fan service while still starting enough interesting story lines for the next movie.
But hey, if you want to act like Star Wars is your religion, go ahead. Just don't expect to get that warm fuzzy feeling back from when you first started believing.