Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

[Standback]

Gatac - I confess that I'm currently quite afraid to rewatch the original trilogy. Because I've watched each one once, years ago. And yes, they are campy movies, and are not exactly full of profound intellectual insights.

But, until I do rewatch them, I can safely make the following statements:

* The characters were infinitely better-done. I can vouch for neither dialogue nor acting - though I'm fairly certain neither were as abysmal as in RotS - but they were better conceived, more interesting, and more sympathetic. Nobody was whiny, pouty, or otherwise exaspertingly adolescant. Luke, Leia and Han Solo played off each other, interacted with each other. They were active, dynamic, interesting (in fact, the parts of the prequels I did enjoy were those of Anakin and Obi-Wan bantering during missions). The Bad Guys were present as more than lightsaber-fodder. C3PO and R2D2 were actual characters. And so on, and so forth.
* The movies had actual suspense. The prequels had almost no characters whose fate we don't already know from the original trilogy... and in RotS, every single plot element was painfully evident from the first ten minutes.
* The original trilogy had many memorable scenes and lines. "Use the Force" and "I am your father, Luke!" are now staples of popular culture, because the movies were well-done enough to make these lines memorable. (If RotS turns out to be at that level of memorability, and I start hearing "Only the Sith speak in absolutes, Anakin!" left and right, I am going to slit my wrists.)
* While SFX definitely contributed to the original trilogy's original success, it does not account for the vast number of younger fans who first watched it long after its original SFX ceased to be revolutionary. Hence, it's safe to say these movies have significant quality other than their SFX. Whereas the prequels seem more concerned with CGI than plot or acting, with certain scenes looking as if they were written with a spin-off computer game in mind.

What it boils down to is this: I feel the original trilogy had many very good things about, very few bad, and almost no very-bad. And the prequels, RotS included, had many very bad things about them, fairly few good, and almost no very-good.

Scooter- because occasionally, and particularly in the presence of extreme amounts of boring programming homework, I enjoy a good grouse. And because I'm disturbed by the widespread acceptence and enjoyment of films devoid of quality.