CatBus said:

If it helps...

I completely agree with you on TPM, it was a giant turd but like you described it tried to tell a new story, it felt pretty much like a crappy reboot to me. But it's also a movie you can easily just disregard if you didn't like it. ROTJ on the other hand is technically supposed to be ESB part 2 and the drop in quality and shift in tone is huge IMO. The disinterest of the people behind the camera is up there on the screen. ESB is certainly not an easy act to follow up or top, they had basically captured lightning in a bottle twice with SW and ESB, and you cannot expect a miracle every time but you can at least expect that they treat the great story material they had with respect for this final act. IMO it was impossible to screw it up but in some way they managed to do it.

"They took the existing storyline that we loved and brought it to a close." Yes, but in what way did they do it? To me all the great buildup in ESB was basically for nothing, they tied up all the loose ends in a very very hamfisted way. I personally don't care if the film contains the characters we knew and loved when they have ceased to be dynamic and interesting, on the contrary it hurts me, much much more than anything Mcgregor, Portman and Neeson did in that new prequel movie.

In retrospect it's easy to see that there never was any intention to bring the same level of effort into a SW sequel again after the tough shoot that was ESB. Everything that followed was bound to be a huge success no matter the quality, everything hinged on ESB. And it certainly didn't help that 4 planned films now was reduced to 1, so much lost potential...