> The biggest problem with Episode I (besides Jar Jar) is the fact that it's saddled with setting up the plot for the entire damn trilogy. So the characters talk a lot, and infodump like crazy, but don't really accomplish that much. In contrast, A New Hope was made with the idea that IF it did well, there would be two more. Sure, Lucas claims he had the idea for 12 movies in the series spring into his head fully formed one day, but the fact is that ANH was made to stand on its own if it didn't do well enough to warrent the next two. So it didn't have to carry everything to set up the next two. The story of ANH is all about the rebels blowing up the death star and striking a great blow to the Empire. The story of TPM had something vaguely to do with some trade dispute, and was entirely secondary to it's main purpose, which was setting up the rest of the trilogy.

Actually, it was nine stories, not twelve, but apparently, Lucas had written up rough screenplays for all of them, and started with Episode IV BECAUSE he could see that it would make a good movie -- action and adventure and such. He started there because he knew that by itself, Episode I would be a boring flop, full of political scheming and such. At least, that's the story I have heard, and I have heard bits and pieces of that same story since the mid-eighties, so I know that it isn't just an after-the-fact rationalization.

He is only making them now to tell the rest of the story, and perhaps because he can do really cool CGI stuff to make them look nice during the action sequences. I would see Ep2 again for the action, but if I see it on DVD, I'll skip most of the dialogue.

> -- Dave

Don Monkey