I don't agree with that at all, ESB at the time got a by of criticism for cofounding expectations over what a Starwars film could be. That's not whats driving most criticism for TLJ IMHO, I think most viewers were expecting some kind of interesting twist but many ultimately felt the film was simply of poor quality lacking in the kind of realistic shift we saw in ESB instead having a lot of poorly set up rug pulling.
I do think part of the problem does go back to TFA though, a lot of the reason ESB works I'd say is that we have a good idea from ANH about were we think the characters and setting of Starwars are taking us so these expectations can be slowly undermined. TFA though really doesn't give us the same view, Rey's character is badly lacking in substance as is much of the setting. That means TLJ gets bogged down in having to build up basic motivation AND then tries to subvert it as well in one film ending up being rushed and cluttered.
Also of course in the aspect that mattered most I think TLJ was a gutless film, unwilling to move past Rey and Kylo being simplistic good and evil characters. Throw in as many rug pulls as you like but ultimately the film ends up backing away from its own premise for me tacking on a questionable happy ending.
Here’s the problem I have with people regurgitating the line” empire was hated until decades later”
Is just blatantly false, how old are you and were you old enough to remeber that time and a fan then?
Sure, you can google around and find some critics of Empire, but it was majority loved , it was a golden era of Star Wars as a fan, Star Wars was everywhere, toys flew off the shelves, kids played Star Wars non stop.
Actors were making appearances everywhere!
If Darth Vader was somewhere to sign autographs people flocked like crazy to see them.
David Proust came to a large dealership by my house as a kid, people flocked there(this was a lot more common back in the day large dealerships paying for appearances for all kinds of shit to drum up sales, big foot, USA-1 etc etc), I waited in line for hours to meet Darth Vader and have my Batha Tracks club shirt signed.
Shits bullshit, empire realistically did not get the hate the media likes to spin on it now as a cover up for TLJ bullshit.
It’s HORSE SHIT, empire was LOVED by a LARGE majority
