Thanks George!

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Now that I own all 3 of these "movies", I really would like to thank George Lucas for losing his ability to direct, write, produce, etc... 

First for giving the guys so much material ripe for riffing.  I was talked into seeing the first one in the theater when it came out, and I never thought there could be any way I would willingly watch it again.

Second, for not pulling even the smallest amount of acting ability out of the actors for 3 entire movies, this really helped keep the emotional damage of the ending to absolute zero.  I mean if you don't give a darn about any of the characters, you don't care if they all get killed or turn evil in the end, do you? 

Since we all knew what was going to happen in the end it was real nice of George not to let us get emotionally invested in ANY of the characters.

Can you imagine brilliant performances and character development, making us care deeply for each of them, only to have your heart ripped out at the end?  Well, thankfully we were spared, thanks again George.

[RoninFox]

He really is a humanitarian, that 'ol George.

[bratpop]

They just don't make timeless actors like Harrison Ford anymore. Or Christopher Reeve. So we're stuck with Hayden Christensen and Brandon Routh.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

They just don't make timeless actors like Harrison Ford anymore. Or Christopher Reeve.

Seconded, whole-heartedly....except.....

A little credit for Mark Hamill.  He had to get the "naive farm boy fullfiling his destiny" part just right for the movies to work....and to provide contrast to Ford's good-hearted wise-guy.

[bratpop]

Welllllll........... true dat. I don't know WTF is up with the human race. You can tell how old everybody is these days. As soon as they 70s were over, BAM. You could tell everyone's age. I don't get it. It must be my fault somehow. I never thought Mark or Carrie looked quite like teenagers. I didn't know they were supposed to be 18 (or whatever Lucas rewrote it to) until years later. Even Carrie's ridiculous temporary British accent makes Natalie Portman look like she's in an elementary school play.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I never meant to imply that the originals had great acting, but it was much more believable than the prequels.

I don't think the actors were a lot better, but they were obviously given better direction back then, also the more green screen is used, the better the director has to be....

Things started to go downhill with the dance party at Jabba's place, episode VI was too long to begin with, the added footage makes it almost as unbearable as the prequels.  I hope we get a RiffTrax of that one next.

While I'm at it I actually like the extended version of episode V, and am neutral about the changes to IV.

[RoninFox]

Part of the problem is Lucas seemingly TRIED to make things realistic now as opposed to then.  The original trilogy is not realistic in the least, it's fairy tale, it's mythic.  You see good, you see evil, they're huge and iconic, as long as the actors actually have talent they can use that to their advantage so things don't HAVE to be realistic to be good.

With the prequels he tried to make everything relate to politics, and thus give it a "realistic grounding" but all that realism did was point out the ridiculousness of everything around it.

[kodiakthejuggler]

Now that I own all 3 of these "movies", I really would like to thank George Lucas for losing his ability to direct, write, produce, etc... 

First for giving the guys so much material ripe for riffing.  I was talked into seeing the first one in the theater when it came out, and I never thought there could be any way I would willingly watch it again.

Second, for not pulling even the smallest amount of acting ability out of the actors for 3 entire movies, this really helped keep the emotional damage of the ending to absolute zero.  I mean if you don't give a darn about any of the characters, you don't care if they all get killed or turn evil in the end, do you? 

Since we all knew what was going to happen in the end it was real nice of George not to let us get emotionally invested in ANY of the characters.

Can you imagine brilliant performances and character development, making us care deeply for each of them, only to have your heart ripped out at the end?  Well, thankfully we were spared, thanks again George.

My sentiments exactly. It's sad that the incidental characters were better than the leads. 

Though, I was thoroughly overwhelmed when I saw Ep. 1 in the theater, but after a few viewings in less-than-stellar cinemas, I came to realize the sad truth about the quality of the prequels.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

[My sentiments exactly. It's sad that the incidental characters were better than the leads. 

Though, I was thoroughly overwhelmed when I saw Ep. 1 in the theater, but after a few viewings in less-than-stellar cinemas, I came to realize the sad truth about the quality of the prequels.

Most of the incidental characters were played by older more experienced actors, so they didn't need as much direction as the younger leads.

I do remember #1 being overwhelming for the first hour or so, then the boredom kicked in, found this old thing I wrote just after seeing episode 1:

http://science.widener.edu/~schultz/SWTF.html

I guess back then I didn't think the acting was all that bad in #1, but I couldn't stomach the movie just as much as now...

[RoninFox]

I remember working out a theory with several of my friends of the phenomena that occurred in many of us in the theater the first time we watched episode 1.  It was as if our brains created a hole to dump all the bad things in.  Something stupid came up in the movie, it went in the hole.  Jar Jar and the fishy Asian stereotypes?  In the hole.  Exsqueeze me and yippie?  In the hole.  Pod race won't freaking end!  In the hole.  Our brains just focussed on anything that reminded us of old Star Wars.  yay lightsabers!  The moment we got up though and walked outside, it's like an explosion went off that propelled everything out of the hole and we were leaving saying "wow, that sucked!"

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Luca$ NEVER had the ability to direct, write, produce, etc.