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It comes down to this:
Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and RotJ were FUN, the actors were FUN, and the characters were FUN. And I cared about all of them.
The new movies? The characters are a drag, save Yoda. And some of the Jedi. And instead of thinking the characters are FUN, I think, "Christensen, I've seen you in Shattered Glass and Life as a House, so I KNOW you can act. Better than this. I KNOW THIS! Portman, I've recently seen you in Garden State and Closer, and you gave two of the best female performances I'd seen all year, so I KNOW you can REALLY act. Ewan. EWAN! How can you now reflect any of Guinness' affability, charm, gravity, interest? When I know for a fact you can be affable, charming, weighty, and interesting?"
I must blame the bad writing and the bad directing. Why Lucas suddenly needed complete control over everything is beyond me. He used to work with more people, yes? The fact is, maybe it's the fun factor, but I never notice any painfully bad acting watching the other three films. Not even from Hamill.
But Christensen, McGregor, and Portam are fine actors in their own right, and whether they're characters are just sucky and boring, or the writing is terrible, or they have NO idea how to behave with blue screens, I have no idea. But the fun factor is seriously missing, save for a few memorable moments in Attack of the Clones that I really, really liked.
But one would assume that if Jackson directed the prequels, they'd have been better.
I blame Lucas.
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