Lucas needs to let go

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2002)

He has shown again with Episode II that he can't handle both producing and directing these pictures. I'm guessing that he's concentrating too much on perfecting the look of the scenes to be able to concentrate on creating a captivating story and script which ties us in emotionally to the characters.
I'm not a hard to please moviegoer. I can forgive the occasional plot hole and bad acting as long as I'm emotionally drawn to the character. This was the main difference between Episodes 4-6 and the prequels. In the original episodes, I was totally rooting for Han, Luke, and Leia to kick some ass. When Lando betrayed Han and Leia, I was thinking, "What a b**tard!" In the new prequels, I was just watching the characters on the screen doing stuff and I wasn't that interested in whether they prevailed or not.
You'll notice that Lucas let others direct Empire and Jedi, perhaps because he knew that making those films would be such a monumental undertaking that he wouldn't be able to both produce and direct them. They both maintained the fun and emotional investment in the characters as Star Wars. Hopefully, he can do the same for Episode III so that he can at least end the series with a bang.