Why The New Star Wars Sucked

I was talking about the new Star Wars movies (episodes I, II, and III) with a friend of mine at work today, and why they were never as good as the originals (IV, V, VI). Almost by accident I mentioned how the new episodes had more going on in the background than the foreground. What I meant was, if you watch almost any of the scenes, you’ll see people, vehicles, and all sorts of business going on behind the main action.

Then it occurred to me that this was the problem with the movies themselves in a nutshell: the background had become more important than the foreground. Lucas was more interested in filling in the blank spots in his grand galactic history than he was in telling a story about these people at this time.

But all that really did was diffuse the story and distract from the main characters. If Lucas had resisted the geek’s desire to be complete, to fill in every single detail, he might have been able to see where the drama really lay, and to make us see it, too.

Instead we got a cartoonish reflection of the earlier, better movies.