I expected standard Disney fare; which is to say a tinny and plastic knockoff of the original at premium prices. Something that looks good initially but doesn’t stand up to scrutiny as the being the actual thing it is imitating.
That describes TFA precisely. Although TFA has the added draw-back of typical "Abrams-isms". Stupid empty mystery boxes, even more "style over substance" than is the standard for this kind of Disney production, and a highly annoying tendency to put his pet obsessions front-and-centre. (In this case, needless MacGuffins and a Big Scene that breaks all laws of physics and logic. Namely the insanely visible-from-all-planets death beam, which is just as stupid as the black holes in his NuTrek film.)
Basically, once I heard Abrams was going to direct, I knew it would have irritating things. But when he also took over writing, I knew it was going to have serious problems. I hoped for the best -- that maybe Kasdan could keep things decent -- but clearly, that wasn't the case. (I've since read much more about the production of the OT, and discovered that I hugely over-estimated Kasdan. Mainly because he shamelessly took credit for ideas that actually came from Lucas.)
Honestly the fact that the MCU had turned out so well up to that point made me think Star Wars might finally be done some justice now that Lucas was no longer at the wheel. I was so ready to like the new movies, and while I was disappointed by TFA, what really drove home how horrible things were was going to see TLJ. And now when I look at TFA, I see all the stupid stuff and missed potential.
With the prequels as the most recent SW films, loads of people still bought into the RedLetterMedia narrative that Lucas was the problem all along. I never did hate the prequels all that much. When the sequels were first announced, the concept sounded ideal. Ideas from Lucas (who appeared to still be involved), which would be turned into a screenplay by Michael Arndt (an accomplished screen-writer). So we'd get Lucas's great strength (big ideas & vision), while cancelling out his big weakness (he gets hammy when it comes to the details, e.g. dialogue and spacific visual choices).
Then Abrams was announced as the director. Like I said, that was bad news to me. Still, his initial NuTrek film wasn't that crappy. And his style seemed more suited to SW. So him as director wasn't all that bad, if the writer was just good. Then it came out they had actually ditched Lucas's ideas, and Arndt was also shown the door. Abrams would be lead writer, too.
Oh, and the next film would be written and directed by Rian Johnson. This was announced in 2014 already. Now, he made a film called
The Brothers Bloom. I have a strong dislike of that film. A sort of terrible smugness drips off the screen. There's no doubt that the director thought himself an auteur genius. So seeing the name "Rian Johnson" was enough to make me fear for SW. Abrams writes rip-off imitation films, and shit sequels because he has no actual ideas. Rian Johnson, however, is the most irritating writer-director in existence. So he's the worst possible man to choose for a follow-up film.
The sequels were doomed from the moment Disney stabbed Lucas in the bak out of greed and impatience. And the fans cheered, because they all though Lucas was the Great Satan who made the "terrible" prequels. They didn't know how good they had it. They didn't get how much worse it could be.
I think the entire debacle can be summed up by this quote from Mark Hamill, about his experience with the sequel trilogy:
"
What I wish is that they had been more accepting of George's advice and guidance. Because he had an outline for VII, VIII and IX. And it is vastly different to what they have done."