Lucas came close but not close enough!

Rating: 5/10 (12 July 2009)

This movie was far better than Ep> 1&2 but we may have Spielberg to thank for that! He quietly helped out his friend. But what Lucas needed was another director, producer, script writer, casting director, etc. As good as the movie was it should have been better. In the 1st 3, we are given the idea the jedi were very powerful but all throughout the 2nd 3 they are not all they were made out to be. Very simple mistakes were made by Lucas which shown that a once great creator had lost his ability to create and his ability to use good judgement in determining what is good and not good entertainment. The 1st signs of his weakness was in the Special Editions of Star Wars. Lucas made so many bad changes to the originals. It clearly shown that he was out of step and off track. We've all heard the gripes over the Greedo scene but one change he made shows that one of Lucas' problems is that he has no respect for the viewer. A scene inserted in S.E. Empire Strikes Back near the end of the movie is an unused camera angle shot of a scene from Return of the Jedi. Vader leaves Cloud City and returns to his ship, a large greeting party is assembled. This was his arrival scene from Return. But another problem is why would Vader receive a grand welcoming for simply returning to his ship? What a stupid idea Lucas had there! In Revenge of the Sith, Lucas, the one time strength is now the big weakness. He doesn't seem able to bring the great story he has written to life. He also is so busy paying homage to Spielberg and the sci fi movies of his childhood he doesn't focus on what he needs to do. He succeeds in making the ships and sound effects and some characters look and sound like the old serials he loved as a child but the end result is unappealing. The greatest sound effect in Star Wars is the lightsabers but he plays music during the fights and no pride was put into the making of the sound as with the 1st 3. Lucas once said Return of the Jedi was about "Tech fails." He should have learned that lesson. All through out Ep 1,2,3, Lucas seems to be out to prove the worth of cpu effects! Once again his mind is not on the movie itself but in a personal fascination. In ep 2,3,4 we saw some cool battles with X-wings ties the Falcon but here we have ugly ships that are to be reminiscent of the sci fi of the 1950's, flying in battles so fast you cant see them. A contrast to the great dogfights we saw in the earlier Star Wars! Lucas used his mighty cpu's to do the light sabers and the lightsaber went from spectacular to florescent lightbulbs! The Emperor's battle with Yoda was a huge flop. Palpatine's appearance changed and his intellect did as well. In his fight with Yoda he laughs acts like small time villain from a Spider-man movie. Lucas lost his edge and only he seems to be unaware of it!