I have read most of the spoilers on this and it sounds like a cool movie on paper. But I thought the same of the last one and it was to me, not very good. Lucas seems pretty bad at dialog and directing. I hope he doesn’t screw up again. He seems to be in a very insulated world filled with yes-men where he can do no wrong. He slammed the critics of his last 2 as irrelevant. Perhaps his emphasis of visuals over substance will work in this one as there will be lots of action. Still, cheesey dialog and horrible acting can stop a movie fast. I really want this movie to be good but based on the last 2, I am doubtful. What do you think?
I think I already flushed $8.50 down the hole for the last two, I’ll end up seeing this one. And just like the others, I think I’ll be alternately laughing and yelling at the badness. I hope I’m wrong, but I agree with your criticisms (the yes-men, his terrible direction and writing - even with help! - and the visuals over substance thing), and I’m not sure how you can make a good movie in spite of all those things.
I’d like to think good things, but face it. This is the guy who took Darth Vader, one of the coolest, most badassest bad guys in all of Badass Bad Guydom, and made him into a whiny snivelling teenager.
It apparently will have more lightsaber battles, which is always good. And will be the darkest of the 6… seeing as how the Sith kill off the Jedi (except Yoda and Obi-Won, of course). Should be fun.
I mean it wasn’t like Episode 1 and 2 were any LESS cheesy in dialog and directing than 4, 5, and 6. Nostalgia just makes it seem that way.
Stalin was a sniveling teenager once, too. Honestly though, I think it works in the context of the movie. He’s angry, confused, struggling for acceptance by the man he admires and loves like a father, but being pushed down at the same time. No one starts out being (and I quote another poster) “Nasty McBadass”. That may be satisfying from a literary POV, but its not true, not in real life and not in Epic Poetry. Even serial killers did not start out with evil on their minds. And Darth Vader is more like the ultimate Nazi - who were often regarded and being upstanding and loving family men. freakish, perhaps, but dead-on accurate.
I liked the movies - all of them. But they were deliberately made for age groups different from mine. TPM was a children’s movie, with more than enough for parents to enjoy. AotC was built from the ground up to appeal to teens. And I enjoyed them both as examples of the genre.
Lucas is right, too. The critics are irrelevant. The movies make money and people like them. Given the numbers on their sales, I suspect that the internet forums that bash the new movies are more than a little bit unrepresentative of the general populace.
Are the movies flawed? Of course they are! Every movie is flawed from someone’s point of view. However, I think that in the case of Staw Wars, a lot of the visceral hatred comes from the feeling that they should have been awesome world-changing movies like the first ones. There was a local review of AotC that spewed journalistic bile all over Goerge Lucas. This was not a case of “man makes bad movie”. That happens all of time, and while those movies are sometimes mocked, they aren’t despised and hated.
Minor Spoiler Alert, But If You Don’t Know These You Have No Business Reading This Thread 
But taking a very close look at the movies, particularly AotC, I think that Lucas made a frighteningly realistic world. Palpatine’s sinister manipulations aren’t the focus of the movies (thank god) but they are perfectly believable. Anakin’s romancing of Padme may be crude and silly, but its also dead-on accurate to me. fact is, he’s a emotionally underdeveloped teenager confused by constant criticism and separated from a family support network. She was dumped into a life of politics at an early age and has spent her life being half-celebrity/half-politico, dealing with people twice or thrice her own age. Neither of them are in any way prepared for love. If they were romancing like Romeo and Juliet, something would have been very wrong. And note that she didn’t even blink when Anakin confessed he’d slaughtered a bunch of Tusken Raiders. These are two seriously messed up people, and I think its quite deliberate. Even some minor details, like
ISiddiqui, you hit it on the head. These were the right movies at the right time, but there is nothing special about them save their use of technology and the desire to tell an arching, mythic story. I even joke that there are never more than two well-acted characters in any Star Wars film: Obi-Wan in (1, 2, and 4). Yoda (in 2, 5, and 6), Han Solo (in 4, 5, and 6), Qui-Gon Jinn (in 1). The others either don’t get sufficient screen time or are really kind of bad.
Its not Star Wars that sucks now, its that you’ve probably gotten older. And some people - maybe too many - just can’t make themselves a kid again and enjoy a movie on its own terms. Star Wars never pretended to be anything more than it is- a flashy way to relax for a couple of hours.
Erm, I thought the most recent Star Wars was the best on since Star Wars II. I’ve REALLY been enjoying seeing it on cable TV.
How much does Lucas owe me?
I expect a lot of the drama in III will depend on Anakin’s conversion to Darth Vader. This could be a problem for Lucas. If handled well, it has the potential to be by far the best ep in the cycle.
If there’s one thing that Lucas has consistently handled excellently, it’s the Darkness. So I have no doubt that this, being the darkest of them all (and wow, I know what happens, and it’ll be a hell of a story) should at least be handled well in that respect.
See, I dissagree with you. I can go back and watch the first ones over again, and sure, Mark Hamil’s acting is god awful, but other than that, they were nice, solid movies (aside from Return of the Jedi, but that had some great space battles). The first one was a nice, tight story, which was a pretty damn good modern day myth. There are very few sci-fi movies out there that are really any good compared to the lot, and the original Star Wars is definitely one of the best. And Empire is even better.
But the drek that is The Phantom Menace was nothing but utter crap. It completely bastardized this great mythos that was built up over twenty some odd years, and was just incredibly poorly written (I mean, shit…“Yippie!”?). It was crap to the nth degree. And Attack of the Clones was just as bad. The actors in the movie are great actors, yet thanks to horrible, horrible directing, they put out some of the worst performances seen on a non-direct-to-video film in ages. That’s a sign of a bad director and piss-poor writting. The first three may have had writting that was just as cliched and bad, but at least the fairly green cast was able to pull them off.
So, do I think Episode 3 will be any good? Sure…if someone else writes it and directs it and Lucas stays in the background playing FX guy. Otherwise, I see him trying to cram way too much into a short amount of time, screwing up what little characterization he’s managed to develope so far, and making just another big stink of a movie. The only saving grace will be the fights, so I’m praying for a lot.
one good thing- III should have Chris Lee!
I’ll let you know after it comes out on video. I saw TPM in the theater and left disappointed but hopeful it would get better. I left the theater half-way through AotC completely pissed at what Lucas had wrought.
I’ll probably rent it just to see the conclusion of the story.
MeanJoe
At this point, does anyone genuinely care if EP III is any good? I used to be a fan and was feverishly caught up in the countdown to The Phantom Menace. But after the majecstic triumps of the three LOTR films, Lucas’s petty crapfests have all the impact of a wet firecracker.
I disagree with the pat answer that Lucas is making these movies as ‘for kids’ and ‘just for fun’.
For one, my kids are about as young as I was when I saw Episode IV (mid teens) and even they said it sucked. Shitty story handling is shitty story handling, even to young ones. So that excuse blows, George.
And the ‘just for fun’ thing is bs also. Anyone who doesn’t think Lucas is marketing for the most profit possible is sadly wrong.
And lastly, the argument that it’s his story and characters and he can do what he wants with them, well that’s true but remember the episode that everyone says was the best, Episode V, which was directed by someone else (Kurchner?).
Lucas can butcher the story all he wants and focus on eye-candy instead, but it only hurts the franchise in the long run.
I thought Episode 2 was a half-decent film and a solid improvement over 1. If 3 improves as much over 2 it will be a good film and maybe the best of the whole lot.
Personally I don’t think the original trilogy was that good either. It had the same basic problems of weak acting and writing and obviously the special effects have dated. The new episodes are a lot better in some respects:eg. the sabre duels(compare the lame Obi-Wan vs Vader duel with the big duels in Ep. 1,2) and the incredibly rich CG environments (compare the bar scenes in Ep 4 and 2)
Ultimately if you want a great cinematic epic set in a fantasy world you should skip Star Wars altogether and watch LOTR.
I’ve throughly enjoyed all five Star Wars movies thus far, and am sure I will enjoy Episode III just as much.
Anyone who disagrees with me is a poopyhead.
ducks as random objects are thrown at head, runs out of thread
I don’t see how anything - with the possible exception of Jar-Jar Binks - was wrong about Episode I.
Episode II on the other hand had a lot of lengthy, boring parts and in some scenes, the CGI tricks were just awful. So I didn’t enjoy that one as much, even though it was still better than the horrible Ewok nonsense of episode VI.
Therefore my ranking would be as follows: IV, V, I, II, VI.
I anticipate episode III being in between IV and V 
I found Ep. II to be half a good movie, and half a bad one. Anything involving the Anakin-Padme relationship was bad. It felt forced, the dialogue was hokey, and they have zero chemistry.
On the other hand, the rest of the movie, the one where Palpatine is engineering a rebellion to give him the political and military authority for absolute rule, well, that’s compelling stuff. And that was the story I wanted to continue.
I’m one of those that liked Ep II. Ep I was the worst of the bunch, followed closely by VI.
The critics are irrelevant because he’s flithy rich, and because he knows people are going to see it anyway. That doesn’t make the criticisms irrelevant, it just means he’s going to get much richer no matter what is written.
Aside from a really die-hard Star Wars freak or two - and they’re even LESS representative of the general population - I’ve never heard anyone say that these movies didn’t suck. I saw Phantom Menace four times because I figured “it’s Star Wars- it has to be good!” Eventually I changed my mind because it had so many retched qualities. My money was still green. The fact that a movie makes money doesn’t even mean it’s that popular, seeing as how you pay BEFORE you see it.
Anyway, I agree with Elvis… well, about everything, but particularly that even though Star Wars never had great writing or much in the way of acting, the older movies are fun and watchable. The newer ones are unwatchable, bloated crap.
I thought the development of Anakin in Ep. II was absolutely abysmal. The only way it could have been worse is if they had flashed, “Anakin is the future Darth Vader!” on the screen when he was complaining about how Obi-Wan was “holding him back.”
Ugh.
Thanks for the replies eveyrone.