Power-rangers version of Star Wars

Rating: 4/10 (26 July 2008)

After millions of fans spent decades building star wars mythology, Lucas comes back and betrays the legacy with a movie that is simply one of the worst entries in the star wars cannon. Every star wars novel I've read had better dialog and a more coherent plot. Comparisons to the original trilogy aren't even possible, the movies are not in the same genre. Too many people are forgetting that these movies not only had to live up to the quality of the original series, but the hundreds of novels and video game story lines written since, virtually ALL of which are better than the prequels.
I have read many defenses of the prequels now that people have had time to reflect on the entire trilogy, but no defense can explain away the fact that these movies are missing the fundamental elements that make a star wars tale work:
1. Chemistry between the main heroes. Chemistry is very fleeting in the prequels because the characters are made of cardboard. 2. Likable main heroes (Han, Luke, Leia) (HINT:this requires personality) 3. Serious supporting characters who fill out the setting and create suspension of disbelief. Supporting characters in the prequels range from comically awful race-typed aliens, to power-rangers style silly monsters, to out-of-place superstars pretending to be Jedi(Sam Jackson). Rather than build the setting, these goofy elements quickly tear any hint of atmosphere built during the OK action sequences to shreds. 4. Following from #3 - a sense of serious danger. As campy as the original movies might seem during the 100th viewing, the villains in these films had enough gravitas to cause a generation to associate stormtroopers, Darth Vader, the emperor, and the empire with heavy layers of evil. By comparison, the prequels have all the dire portent of a TMNT episode.
I think these are the key elements that were missing. These are the elements that generally separate the good adventure movies (ratings of 8+ out of 10) from the throwaways (ratings from 4-6 out of 10). If the prequels had the elements listed above, they would have been worthy additions to the mythos, scoring around a 9 out of 10 on metacritic and IMDb. The basic storyline in the movies was adequately interesting, if only Lucas had given us interesting characters to experience it with.
Tragically, the acting and writing in the prequels isn't just cardboard boring, it is actually cringeworthly power-rangers level garbage that frankly makes the movies unwatchable to anyone over the age of 14. The writing is seriously on the same level as the typical Saturday-morning cartoon. I seriously doubt the actors involved with the films can even make themselves watch them.
My advice, if you are interested in delving deeper into the Star Wars universe avoid the prequels until you have read enough good novels to keep you from being turned off. Pick up a copy of Heir to the Empire and wonder why they couldn't have made it into a movie instead of Lucas's cartoonization of starwars. The sad thing is it probably never will be now that Lucas has so ruined the film franchise.