I quite enjoyed it and was surprised to see several negative reviews from critics with similar taste to mine. It's well acted, clever, beautifully shot and the sound is fantastic.

>damaged the brand

George Lucas making three awful prequels did a lot more damage that some middling sequels have done.

Know what the difference is? Social media and the internet have absolutely exploded in use since 2005 so anyone on them is bombarded with nonsense. If the prequels came out in 2016 instead of 1999-2005 they'd be a global joke and Star Wars really would have died as a movie franchise.

Like Marvel, if you put out a lot of content, some will be good, some will be meh and others will be bad. Star Wars is going fine.

I thought it was a well made movie, but as someone who doesn't have kids it didn't do very much for me. The main duo were excellent together, though.

I think there's really no point in comparison. Completely different films made at different times with different technology, with different sources.

I enjoy the original Star Wars films more, largely because the runtime of the LOTR is just brutal. Once a movie goes past 2.5 hours I'm tuning out.