I saw E1 in a theatre and people cheered, there was a standing ovation!
In that moment the love of star wars surrounded us like the force! later being critical became popular.
I hope people let their guards down and let the love surround them and just embrace this new movie.
They cheered because they love Star Wars. I think one reason people became more critical over time is that you just can't re-watch those movies. I get no enjoyment out of re-watching I and II. Too many plotlines that I find extremely boring, too much un-needed complexity, and not enough "Star Wars". The Originals had a bad guy and a good guy. The prequels didn't really have a bad guy, as the Emperor was in the background the whole time, Anakin was still good until the very end of III, and Darth maul, as good as he was, died in Episode I and was heavily under-used.
Had they cut out all the political drama, had Darth Maul in all 3 prequels (only to be killed by Anakin in E3), and cut out some of the cheesy drama, the prequels would have been much better.