It was ROTJ that started the trend of just repeating the same beats as the first two films and then George wanted the PT to "rhyme" and so the repetition continued. TFA? Well that one goes without saying.
So hard to divorce those things you mention. You could be right, but with Attack of the Clones, the cheesy jokes, the horrible, overdone CG, the cringe-worthy dialogue, the terrible, unlikable characters. . .I'll take Last Jedi type films any day over anything like the prequels. Warts and all.Of course TLJ has far better acting and visuals. But besides the good acting and visuals I think TLJ was at least as bad or inferior to AOTC in structure and plot. Which would have gone largely ignored by angry fans if Kennedy/Johnson hadn't taken it a step further and besmirched beloved characters and broke long standing OT "rules". Folks who have been fans of a franchise for four freaking decades are going to react to that sort of thing....
True but I think another reason why movies like Pirates frequently get generally negative critical response is because, unlike Marvel and Star Wars, there aren't huge toylines that every parent will be buying their kids for Christmas and thus Disney doesn't see it fit to pay off critics for movies without huge toylines.
That's another good thing about Pirates (even the fourth one) - you don't feel like you're watching a glorified toy ad.
