Oh it’s absolutely an age thing. Star Wars has always been geared for a younger audience. George Lucas even has an interview where he says “I’ll get in trouble for saying this but Star Wars is for kids”. The prequels really tested this. They’re not super great movies to begin with but they were a significant tonal shift from the Original trilogy. I shit thee not on this but all the animosity the Sequels get? The exact same level of energy and anger that the Prequels got. That only started phasing out once Force Awakens came out. Suddenly everyone loves the whole prequels. Star Trek has similar arguments (see Discovery or TNG when it launched. Or DS9 when it launched. Or Voyager. Etc.) but they aren’t as loud about it as Star Wars can be.
Oh it’s absolutely an age thing. Star Wars has always been geared for a younger audience. George Lucas even has an interview where he says “I’ll get in trouble for saying this but Star Wars is for kids”. The prequels really tested this. They’re not super great movies to begin with but they were a significant tonal shift from the Original trilogy. I shit thee not on this but all the animosity the Sequels get? The exact same level of energy and anger that the Prequels got. That only started phasing out once Force Awakens came out. Suddenly everyone loves the whole prequels. Star Trek has similar arguments (see Discovery or TNG when it launched. Or DS9 when it launched. Or Voyager. Etc.) but they aren’t as loud about it as Star Wars can be.