when they did episodes I, II, and III, the franchise was still owned by LucasFilms and George Lucas insisted on directing them, which is why they were so bad. while he is a visionary and capable of writing amazing stories, and even producing them all the way to a story board, Lucas is famous for making good actors do terrible things. the guy is a bit crazy and obsessed with pre-modern acting, the same stuff as Laurence Oliver's Hamlet, which is overly dramatized and has nothing to do with how real people would act in real life. so while the acting was absolutely unbearable, the story itself was pretty well done.
but now its in the hands of Disney, and lets be honest, they havent been making very many good films either lately. John Carter, TRON legacy, and Beverley Hills Chihuahua 2, to name a few of their top grossing films that werent worth watching. basically all Disney does now is flex their special effects muscles since they have ridiculously high budgets, but dont really bother with the story line, because who cares about the story when you can have 3D explosions, right?
so i think the new Star Wars movie is going to be bad for completely different reasons as the recent trilogy. im expecting decent acting and more than that, mind blowing special effects. but its going to be lazily pasted onto a bland, linear plot line that you'll be able to predict from the very beginning, if you havent already read the comics. compare it to Alice in Wonderland: the original books and 1951 film had nearly no plot and were completely non-nonsensical. Alice was lost and wandering, and thats exactly what the story delivered. but in the 2010 Disney remake, all of a sudden it had a very linear, masculine plot from the minute she arrives in Wonderland: Alice must kill the Jabberwocky and then she can go home. while the special effect provided a really cool and lifelike visual of Wonderland, they ran the story over with a steam roller and made it exactly like every other decent but not great movie ever made. discover the problem > debate if its worth fixing > decide yes > kill the bad guy > go home and fuck the prom queen. and thats exactly what will happen to Star Wars, god rest its soul.
