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Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
Couple thoughts on both those posts.
I have to agree characters in TFA were more engaging but a few points. TFA was as much or more a fan service film. Heck the whole plot was a retread and it relied way more on fan endearment of familiar characters.
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That's completely upside down
The plot of TFA is only a retread if you know the originals. So saying that it's just a retread is saying that it's a WORSE film if you've seen the originals. Which might very well be true, but that's the exact opposite of "not standing on it's own".
(Also, it's the basic hero's journey story, which is hardly unique to Star Wars.)
Plus I don't see how it relies on fan endearment at all to sell the old characters. Han Solo especially has a quite sizable role in the film that doesn't really have much to do with the previous films, and it's a role that's perfectly understandable and relatable without any prior context. Chewbacca is the sidekick as always, again nothing that needs prior knowledge to understand, and he's just as likable (or not, personally I've never really seen the fascination with the furball). I don't remember what the robots do much, but IIRC C3PO is pretty much the annoying sidekick and thankfully isn't in the film that much.
R2D2 is completely replaced with a different robot. Again, I don't see how that character lies on prior knowledge of the universe.