good, not great, just good.

Rating: Null/10 (17 May 2002)

In the old Star Wars movies the characters had personality. Princess Leah was a bitch-on-ice, and it was great watching her interact with a sarcastic Han Solo or a naïve Luke Skywalker. Darth Vader was a nasty, evil villain and everybody wanted to be like him. Come on, admit it, he stole the show. And for the most part, the special effects were used only to help tell a clever, witty, almost inspirational, over-the-top story.
In the new films the characters are just bland shadows of the originals. They say whatever clichéd lines and dialog Lucas wrote for them. There are occasional moments of emotion and feeling, but more often the computer-animated characters are more full of life than the real humans. (Hey George, if you're going to go through all the trouble of making up a character from scratch, next time try not to make him irritating.) And worst of all, the special effects seem to take priority over the story. It's like the plot is used as an excuse to throw in more shiny-flashy-noisies. And where's the villain?
George Lucas is a very talented man, only a fool would say otherwise. But I think his strengths lean more towards the producing end. In my humble opinion he's not that great at directing or writing, at least not anymore.