The tech toys and effects were fun, but man what absolutely godawful, clunky and stilted interpersonal dialog for a picture that was that expensive to make. Didn’t Lucas have anyone review or edit the script besides himself?
No, because they would obscure the vision that gave us the Star Wars: Special Editions and we’d wind up with something like The Empire Strikes Back instead, and we can’t have that, now, can we?
Word has it Lucas even turned down Spielberg’s offer to direct, BTW.
He did have a co-writer, Jonathan Hales by name. Which is truly scary. But you know, nobody was worried about the script, it seems. The studio wasn’t going to care, because it was going to make tons of money anyway. Lucas either thinks he’s such a genius that the script was good, or also didn’t care because he was going to get even more super-rich.
It’s kind of amazing that (to some extent, perhaps less than we know) he’s responsible for Star Wars and appears to be (or have become?) such a bad writer and director.
And hey, think about this: it’s worse, and it’s only been about a year. Think about how bad this movie will seem in 5 years, or 10. 
It isn’t just the script. If you think about it, decent actors or even a decent director could have made many of those clunky lines work. But their were neither. The major actors sucked for some reason, and the director seems to favor just going with the first take or something, because timing is off, delivery is wooden:any competant director could have seen that and said “hey, let’s take that again, and this time be a second earlier, and maybe try saying it like this…”
I mean, it truly and honestly sounds like a John Waters movie at times. And Water DIRECTS his actors to delivery lines woodenly and off-kilter.
I asusme spoilers are okay here?
The worst was that Lucas simply didn’t sem to think through his chraacters or plot. Anakin’s job is guard Padme at all costs… and yet when she falls out of the ship, Obi Wan seems to think Anakin mad for wanting to continue to do his duty: and even convinces Anakin by telling him to do his duty and NOT guard Padme! What?
Because at that point, catching Dooku was more important than guarding Padme. And perhaps Obi Wan also releases that there ARE clone troopers there to help.
Saving Privte Obi Wan’s ass was pretty important too, but neither the council nor Obi Wan himself wanted Anakin to go then. The point is, this was a scene meant to show that Anakin’s passions were starting to overcome his virginal dedication to duty. Except, dutywise, the Council, not Obi Wan, had ordered Ani to guard Padme no matter what.
I caught the Fireplace scene and thought my ears were going to bleed…
I liked it. But I admit the dialogue was really bad. 
I dunno, bad dialogue is part of the charm of the whole Star Wars saga, I think. After all, the first movie was just a soap opera set in outer space – hence the designation, “Space Opera”.
But for what it’s worth, AOTC was a huge improvement over Phantom Menace. Yeah, the middle parts dragged really badly, but at least there was some semblance of real “conflict”, you know, good vs. evil and all that, instead of the whole thing being based on a trade dispute. Plus, no cutsie little Annakin moppet (who, unbelievable as it sounds, was actually considered for the lead in the movie version of Ender’s Game, but is now too old for the part…THANK GOD!!!) And the Gladiator pit scene, with those crazy CGI animals, was damn cool.
And Corusant (sp?) was freakin’ awesome! If I could choose an SW planet to live on, it would be that one. That’s really what made the movie for me.
Saying AOTC is better than Phantom Menace is like saying eating vomit is better than eating shit.
It’s my conclusion that Lucas is just a really bad director for actors. Even the ever fabulous Ewan McGregor comes off stilted in the movie. I suspect almost every actor in the movie is much better under a better director. Spielberg could make those cheesy lines sound much better and natural. Lucas is probably a genius in the realm of technology, but he’s no more a director than I am.
Actually the “Space Opera” designation came from the phrase “horse opera” a nickname for “B” Westerns because the Star Wars plot seemed derivitive of so many of the Westerns of a generation before. As a matter of fact if you look back at virtually any of the reviews of the film when if first came out, you will see phrases like “fun western set in outer space” or “like a western with a young Randolph Scott and John Payne.”
Perhaps your dialogue reference was even more valid, however. The lines in those old westerns can make Soap dialogue seem like poetry.
Mind you, the term “space opera” dates from long before Star Wars, back to the 1930s and Doc Smith’s Lensman series.
The dialogue in the first couple of Star Wars movies was bad, but the last two have been god-awful. Does that seem like a valid distinction?
Pertinent (and possibly apocryphal) quote from Harrison Ford during the shooting of Star Wars: “You can write this shit, George, but you can’t say it.”
My theory: The dialogue has always sucked. But the original trilogy has kind of a hand-made, low-tech look about it, similar to the old Buck Rogers serials, that allows the goofy dialogue to work in context. Now in the prequels, which are are as high-tech as high-tech gets, the dialogue stands out against the slick background as seeming even worse than it is.
Amen.
Hear, hear. My favorite bad line from the first Star Wars flick:
Lars: “That wizard’s just a crazy old man.”
But then there’s:
Luke: “But I was going to the Toshi station to pick up some power converters!” whine
And:
C-3PO: “Don’t you call me a mindless philopher, you overweight glob of grease.”
I love the original movie to death. I first saw it when I was five. But really… Cervaise is right. The dialogue in it wasn’t all that good, just myffic. Very myffic.
FISH
My “favorite” piece of dialogue …
Anakin: I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth.
The new movies lack a Han Solo to make things fun. And everyone knows it too.