Rian I think understood that one of the strengths of the original movies is that they were very theme forward
The characters in the original trilogies are well loved and memorable, but they're all archetypal and each represent something and Lucas uses those themes to tell his story. One of the reasons the film is timeless is because even though its not the deepest story in the world, everything works together. I mean even the prequels, which are not good movies at least work and at some point embrace campyness and never let it get in the way of a good story.
I feel like the reason why critics liked TLJ more than TFA, because there was nothing thematically interesting about TFA - TFA is just a wild messy nostalgic joy ride. The characters barely even matter in TFA, the plot is just a bunch of mystery boxes, and there is no resolution in the movie. TFA isn't even a cohesive narrative, it can barely even be judged as its own movie. I mean fuck off with your map to the treasure storyline. But you're right, JJ at least had an idea of an actual story with actual payoff over three movies which is an important part.
But TLJ while it tries to do something interesting in its storytelling, it fails because it doesn't actually develop any of the characters
And they all are given one issue to sort through, and the sort through it... and there is no payoff, none of them change as a result because none of them had any depth to begin with. And it never really commits to anything, so the ideas feel half cocked. And the themes are super shallow and preachy, which makes my early statement about why critics liked it more feel like a super charitable interpretation of actual shilling. The only characters that comes close to depth is Kylo, the rest of them could be replaced with virtually any other type of character and nothing changes about the movies. And like you alluded to, the story itself never goes anywhere - it ends pretty much where it began except with less players. So there was almost no point to it. Also none of the characters choices ever feel like they mean anything, because stuff just happens to them anyway - but I could levy that criticism against TFA also.
I can't actually decide which movie is worse, because they're so different and disconnected and they both suck so hard in different ways. But I certainly had more fun watching TFA.
If the ROS is at least somewhat like TFA in tone and execution it'll probably end up being a fun movie, but I can't imagine it being memorable or long lasting.
