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Now that it is all over I bet you Ewan will be coming clean about how bad an experience it was. After all, he was a huge fan too, he must feel really let down and humiliated. I may return to comment on particular individual gripes about ROTS but it is getting late and that could take some time.
I doubt it. Most critics have heralded this last prequel film. Not only that, but most of those that aren't geeky fan-boys have had their hugest complaints with things such as Jar Jar and others that were geared more towards children. Most have spoken about how well Christiansen and Portman were on screen together in this film. If you think that the acting was bad in this film (ROTS) then don't aim it towards George. He hired a dialogue coach to work with most of the actors as he would be too busy this time around with the action.
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I'm a 34 yr old guy from the UK who was just the right age when watching Star Wars for the first time in 1977.
That would make you 6 when the original was released. I highly doubt that dialogue and acting were something you were looking at with a harsh eye at the time. If you go back and really look at the acting in the originals, they really aren't they great from certain actors. There is a reason Mark Hamill hasn't had a film career after being in three of the most popular films of all time. Sure, there are some great actors giving great performances (JEJ, Frank Oz, Ford, Sir Alec, Ian) but there are PLENTY of bad ones. Jabba the Hutt? Are you kidding me. Talk about pacing, ANH is the SLOWEST film from the introduction of the driods until we meet Obi Wan. Large amounts of silence and non-action. It isn't until we get to the jumping off point 'Mos Eisley' that the film actually picks up a tolerable speed. Dialogue? How about the celebration on Yavin? How about the X-Wing pilot APOLOGIZING for having been shot in the battle? Please.
The OT is ripe with much of what you have complained about the PT having. Is the PT better? No, of course not. ROTS is the only one that I hold in the class of the other films. However, to rail against them as if the OT was perfection is a bit misguided. You were a child when you first saw them, so bad dialogue wouldn't have burned you as bad. As you grew up watching them, you would have been used to most of the bad dialogue and not cared. Most of the children that have left my theater have been loving it, eating it up, as I'm sure you were at 6.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I'm a big QT fan, but he would have done unspeakable damage to this franchise and Soderburgh seems to have lost his talented directing style over his last few films.
The PT isn't the OT, it was never intended to be. The characters were not intended to be the same. Anakin's angst is different than that of Luke's. There is common thread, but they were never to be carbon copies. The tone of the films changes as they would over a 40 year span.