Star Wars is a cash cow right? so no matter what crap we put out, the dumb masses will buy it and we'll be stinking rich!..oh, wait a minute, we already are. That kind of thinkng MAY have been behind the PT but times have moved on.

I completely disagree with this. I truly believe that George Lucas genuinely wanted the prequels to be high-quality films, and tried his hardest to make them such. Unfortunately, his own bloated ego and inadequacies as a story-teller and filmmaker got in the way and botched the enterprise. But I don't for a moment believe that they were only ever motivated by gross monetary greed.

Which, in a way, is even more pathetic, since if they were just cash-cows there would at least be an excuse.