What's charming about it? How many times Disney managed to mash the nostalgia button in one movie?
How the Millenium Falcon is introduced is an example of something that bothers me. There's a cute fake out ("the garbage will do") but that doesn't work as well in subsequent viewings and it relies entirely on the nostalgia of the Falcon and its relationship with the audience. Instead of having Rey talk about an old modified freighter that they can use - even just briefly - to escape/I don't know if it's good enough/If we'll get far with it etc... they just went with this cheesy ass, force-fed jump into the chase sequence. Rey can fly the Falcon because... she can.
Don't agree at all here. There's no lean on nostalgia in that scene, just a reveal. If you've seen the other movies, you know something the characters don't about the ship they're about to steal, and that's a valid cinematic technique to use there. Yes, it was designed to get a cheer out of the audience, but it's part 7 in a series, and it's not unfair of the film to assume you know what the Millennium Falcon is.
As for Rey flying the Falcon, she's familiar with wartime tech from a lifetime of scavenging it, has worked on that ship before (hence why she knows it's garbage), isn't
that great at flying it at first, and only succeeds due to her connection with the Force. And that last part is not any kind of bad thing, unless you think Luke hitting the exhaust port is an equally bad cop-out.
TFA wasn't great. It could definitely have been better in many ways. But it amazes me how people focus in on not just the wrong things, but things that are pure Star Wars about it. It has tremendous structural problems and by far the worst editing of all seven films. Rey being able to fly the Falcon is not even on my top 25 list of "things I would address in a fixed cut."
What? I've never seen a single human being that said they liked Jar-Jar. Even C3P-O is an annoying little shit that people only like because he's associated with the lovable R2-D2.
BB-8 is the real MVP anyways. Everyone and their grandma loves him.
Talk to people who were 7 in 1999. Find some 24 year olds and ask them. Hell, there's a whole documentary coming out about this, called The Prequels Strike Back, made by and about people who were children when the prequels were released and only found out they were supposed to hate the prequels when they got online as teenagers.
Totally with you on BB-8, though.
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It's gonna be great.