Yeah I think so too
I was 7 when I first saw Star Wars A New Hope. Like almost everybody else I watched it so many times I memorized the dialogue. I don't think it is possible for any film to get the same reaction from a person who has simply grown up and now sees the world so differently. For me, it becomes a case of mismanaged expectations. It appears that for many, this has become the case. I always hear or read about how great the original trilogy was, and they were BUT when I watched them again many years later with my own son, also 7 years old 32 years later, he was enthralled and all I saw was how hokey so much of the trilogy was. It became very clear that Lucas had an outline but was pretty much making things up as he went along. If there is one thing that makes me give Rogue One an excellent grade, it's that 3 days later, my son (now 9) goes up to me and says "Dad, I'm still sad". Character development may not have been up to the standards of the best movies ever but it was enough to make a young boy feel for the protagonists, enough for a young boy to get a glimpse of what sacrifice is about. If anything, IMO this movie raises the bar for Episode VIII more than Episode VII. It actually made Episode VII look bad in many ways.
With somewhat of a clean slate, JJ got the look down but went way too copycat. It was a case of just ratcheting up the original. Rogue One tells a story whose ending we supposedly know but in hindsight did we really? To be fair, JJ needed to address continuity with the prior films. The real clean slate is Episode VIII. They have a tough decision to make. Do we see the completion of Luke's story or do we get a hand off to Rey and Finn? The latter would be copycat city all the way, the former, we see the possibility of an epic face off between the last Master Jedi and the last Sith Lord with neither taking a knee. Rogue One felt fresh, Episode VIII should too.
