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I watched the original trilogies in the movies and my reaction to them are still fresh. That's how impressed I was with them.

I wrote this before so I'll be repeating. Back in 1977, U.S. was in a funk over Vietnam and Watergate. There were no heroes. Americans weren't the good guys. Everything was gray even the movies like Deer Hunter or Coming Home which had no real good guy heroes to root for. Lucas even said he wanted to create heroes for a new generation and SW is exactly that. No gray. Just good vs. bad. It felt nice to cheer for good guys, again. SFX, music story, characters were groundbreaking and an event.

Fast forward to the prequels. I liked them. I never compared them to the originals because I know that Lucas' message was different. Instead of creating heroes, he tried to warn us about how a democracy becomes a tyranny. Different times, different message. I had minor problems with them like some of the acting, Jarjar, etc. but overall I enjoyed them. Ditto, music, SFX, story, plot, characters, etc.

Fast forward to the sequel trilogy. Force Awakens. No message. Dumbing down. Not creative and some bad writing. Visually uncreative. But, the characters intrigued me. I liked the move away from CGI. Many questions with possible interesting answers. I saw it four times in the movie theater. SW is back!

Last Jedi was a mess! Very bad writing which contradicted the writing from the previous movies. Lucas cared. Even Abrams. Johnson doesn't care about the characters, story nor lore. Now Force Awakens is ruined since it depended on Last Jedi for continuity. I agree with critics who wanted Luke, Leia and Han together and heroic. I would've accepted the new characters if they hadn't ruined the originals ones.

Now, I only recognize Lucas work to be canon. BTW, I only recognize the original theatrical trilogy. The specialized versions are a travesty.

Well im that guy, watch Empire and Jedi at the Cinemas , TFA I liked, set up some interesting questions, I like the organic feel about it , TLJ on the other hand I cant stand , just aint star wars, the continuity between it and TFA is screwed , Johnson was more concerned in creating his own artistic vision for star wars , almost being controversial for the sake of it, ooo if I do this it will get peoples attention , now I don't give a crap what comes after it, although I did enjoy Solo its one of the first Star Wars movies I didn't watch at the cinema.

"Let's say a person from 1983, when the original trilogy just ended and was fresh and new, travels to the future, 2018, and they watch the prequels and the new trilogy"

Yeah. I just did that , as did everyone else who saw the original 3 at the time (admittedly we were only travelling through time at 1.0 speed) . So what you'd get is the opinions , debates , and etc that we have now.

Well, since so many original fans hate this film I'd say the reaction would be about the same. I don't think the difference in time as to how long it took them to see it would drastically change their reaction.

It would probably be a shock to see how they had aged. I'm sure all the Luke fans would still be aghast at what they did with his character and how they didn't get to see a hero Luke or see how his powers had matured over 30 years and they'd still be bummed that Han, Luke and Leia never appeared in a scene together ever again and they'd still be like "didn't they defeat the Empire? Why are we still in this situation as if Return of the Jedi never happened?"

People from the 80's could still tell the difference between a blockbuster and an agenda driven, political cash-grab.

It might depend on how old they are in the 80's. Someone younger from the 80's would be less critical than someone older. For example, I was 15 when Independence Day came out and saw it at the cinema. I was blown away by the special effects and liked it very much. If I had seen it an older age for the first time, I might still have been blown away by the special effects but I'd have been more attune to the movie's faults, like all the cliches and the stereotyping, and general silly moments. So probably a similar thing here. Though on a positive note I do believe anybody from the 80's would be impressed on an initial viewing, by the visuals in a modern day blockbuster like this.

I know these new movies are crap, but if I came from 1983 and saw these, I would be AMAZED from the visuals and acting style and action sequences and story rythm and editing.
Plus the story has many innovative elements of racial love and women empowerment.

By today standards, they are sub par drivel created by people with no talent nor vision serving solely the greed of a giant corporation.