Okay, I've got to get in on this.

First of all, I think it's totally unfair to compare the success of Episode 3 to ROTK. Primarily because the new Star Wars series is a sequel (more than a prequel and I'll tell you why. We're backwardsly judging it as a sequel, so we expect it to be as good, if not better than the orginal trilogy. Our judgement is based on pre-existing plot points and style. The prequels totally break the tradition, taking the story to an earlier state. Stylization is there, but plots and characters spawn from an almost sterile state. I think GL was actually brilliant in this since he started a galaxy in that way. We really can't judge that way correctly, simply because we haven't been trained in movie history to watch prequel films.)

Anyways, the LOTR series has no existing cinema history to judge it against, and i'm speaking specifically LOTR, not cinema history altogether. In lamen terms, it's the first of its kind and was judged accordingly. If a new Lord of the Rings trilogy were to be released, it would be just as critic-slammed as Eps 1-3, because all of the original LOTR fans will be judging it based on the original Peter Jackson works.

Now, God forbid, Peter Jackson decides to wait 30 years to do the next and then goes off and tells the tale of Bilbo Baggins, which I think was the Hobbit. You tell me if he'll be able to maintain a loyal fanbase after the totality of LOTR is mutated and changed due to current films and public opinion and criticism. It's just almost definite that a LOT of the fans will be disappointed. Our younger viewers will have new movies and new effects and will be judging it accordingly, so it will fall into the same thing as Ep 1-3.

So, moving along. You have to give GL credit for maintaining what he feels to be authentic Star Wars; not changing due to public opinion and keeping it faithful to his earlier work.

The world has changed and movies with it and you gotta respect his "bullheadedness" to keeping his films his films and staying true to that. What else could you ask for? If nothing else, i'm comfortable that Episodes 1-3 are AUTHENTIC STAR WARS and not some overly-hyped Hollywood studio crap. Bar none.

It also brings up another point. Someone mentioned that the only people still faithful to the series are the die hard fans. DUH!! There are people who are diehard fans of the LOTR series (myself included) If 30 years past and Peter Jackson did a new trilogy and stated he would FUND IT HIMSELF and keep it true to HIS definitive vision, i would respect that. There's also the point that Peter Jackson is using a pre-existing work, which makes his job a LOT LESS HARD than Lucas', where the entire bulk of the project relies solely on him. That's in a literary sense, a directing sense and just about everything else.

Let's judge all of these things and take them into consideration when making our opinions and we'll find that in essence, those that are hating on the new prequels are simply expecting too much.

Star Wars isn't the "second coming of christ", Nirvana or whatever religious faith you believe to be the ultimate in redemption and salvation. It isn't here to save us from ourselves. It isn't a messaih. The problem is, people have taken it too seriously and expect it to change their lives. It can't. It won't. It's a movie.

Get over it.

Later!