Originally posted by: Tiptup
About Jar Jar [...] Again, there's nothing particularly good about him, but I can tolerate him in my amusement I guess I could say. Also, I was always sort of impressed in a technical way at how they could make a digital character look almost decent next to everybody and on real movie sets (most notably after seeing how horrible the digital Jabba looked in those scenes with Han Solo in the special edition of Star Wars).

I totally understand this perspective, and it makes very much sense. Also, Lucas has stated something along the lines of what you say pretty explicitly in that he saw the inclusion of a completely digital actor alongside real ones as a technological challenge he wanted to master. I have no problems with any of this at all, and as much as lots of the CGI and SFX look plasticky and unreal, I don't really care about that either. I don't actually hate Jar Jar, but I see him more or less as the personification of the greater problems with the films. In the end, my issue is really with the inappropriate storytelling. I was looking for a light hearted science fiction fantasy fairy tale about the great and epic struggle between good and evil told in such a way that kids and adults, young and old alike, would marvel and rejoice at this great tale, because that's the sort of entertainment the OT was. This is what made and defined Star Wars to me, and to me the PT just doesn't feel like Star Wars, except perhaps for a few and brief moments.