Can't we just let the corpse of Star Wars lie in peace without digging it up and raping it every decade? I loved IV - VI inclusive, loved them like a fat kid loves jellybeans. (Apropos enough, since I was that fat kid, but I digress.) I was ready to love the prequel trilogy as well, but three straight attempts to recapture the old magic were pissed right down the drain, leaving me the cynical and indifferent lump I am now. I'm not even angry about all this forced nostalgia; it's just sad to me that our society has become so gun-shy that spinning out a franchise where every nuance has inextricably wormed its way into the American zeitgeist -- a franchise so shackled by its success as to be enslaved by its own consumer base -- is not only seen as a good idea, but one brilliant enough to be attached to the names of every vaguely important person in Hollywood. Why is everyone so excited?
So go ahead and make VII - IX if you want, Disney. Go ahead and make all the gaiden-spinoffs of the expanded universe that you like. I may even watch them if I'm bored enough.
(I did see Moviebob's "defense" of Episode 1, before you ask. He raises a few valid points, but they don't excuse the fact that the screenplay was deeply flawed on many levels.)
