The power of nostalgia on the human condition...The film was not released in China in 1977...
I read that China just let it's people see the original Ghostbusters not long before the 2008 Olympic games, USA volleyball players were perplexed when the Chinese fans were dressed like it's characters and chanting "Ghostbusters!"
Probably because one is hard to believe fictional nonsense with people running around using magic, and where brothers and sisters hook up, while the other one takes place in space.
Since China is not driven by nostalgia, it's an accurate index about the quality of the new trilogy. No nostalgia involved, if the movies are good, they'll watch them, if they're not, well, then nope.
The movie has flopped there. Draw your own conclusions.
Yeap, but back in the day Star Wars was something completely different. It was the first scifi movie that looked like a scifi movie. The only other movie that I can think of and did something remotely similar was the Matrix. Or perhaps Alien or Blade Runner (and this one wasn't well understood neither, critics massacred it).
It's logical that middle age men thought the movie was strange. Because back then, it was.
RotS, on the other side, it's not strange. It's not innovative, or different, or new. It's just... bad.
It is obvious that 95% of the brain power went into special effects while just 5% went into the script.
The horses on the battlecrusier is a prime example. I was waiting for the commander to simply look outside the window and just tilt the ship ( which would have been cool btw) but it didn't happen.