My love affair with Star Wars is almost over

I love Star Wars. I love the original movies, and for years now I have been defending the prequel trilogy even though I am willing to concede some of the things people find problematic (wooden acting, overly complicated storytelling, comprehensive yet uninspiring CG, way too much stupid "kiddie" humor, plot and character motivation issues, racist or anti-semitic alien characters, etc.). Still, I have loved them because I have founds things in each movie that I really enjoyed, and because (I'm paraphrasing some movie, wish I could remember) I love them for who they want to be, and for who they almost are, etc. Also, I just love them because they are Star Wars and they get to keep me thinking about Star Wars a little bit longer. I would even argue that Episode III is close to or better than Return over the Jedi. Now, everyone knows that ROTJ is the weakest of the original trilogy, probably because by the time of the ROTJ Lucas had already started turning the Star Wars movies into "kiddie movies" (see Aint it Cool for a discussion of this, I can't say it any better than they did), but still, ROTJ has always had a special place in my heart b/c it was the first one I actually saw in the theater (being too young for the other ones). But I watched this sequence from The Empire Strikes Back, and it made me profoundly sad, as did the recent reviews for the "Clone Wars" movie. I'm unlikely to see that in the theater, though I'll probably still rent it when it comes out on DVD (just because of my "completist" tendencies).

I agree with everything the negative commentators have said about what Lucas has done to the Star Wars story. The reason that sequence from TESB made me so sad was that I'm pretty sure that there's nothing in any of the prequels one tenth as good as that sequence (except for maybe the light saber duel at the end of TPM, that was pretty spectacular) because all in one sequence it had humor, excitement, real human drama and tension. Pauline Kael and other may have complained about the acting in the original SW when it came out, but it seems like the Royal Shakespeare Company in comparison to some of what is delivered in the prequel trilogy.

So, I'm willing to concede now that despite the fact that they all have good stuff in them, the prequels are generally disappointing, when taken as a whole. I'm still not willing to say that they completely suck. However, the stuff that's good is really good, but then it is overwhelmed by the stuff I hate (less so in Episode III, but general principle still applies). Examples:

Episode I:

Love: light saber duel at end, rescue mission of Queen Amidala and escape from Naboo

Hate: stupid "roger roger" droids, ridiculous Asian stereotype trade federation, jar jar, offensive middle eastern watto character, pod race, pod race, pod race (did I mention I hate the pod race?), clumsy wooden acting (I swear Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor are good actors, I've seen it elsewhere), etc.

Episode II:

Love: the notion that the entire war/conflict is being engineered by one guy to create a climate of fear and create the need for draconian security measures, the sequence when Anakin goes searching for his mom, Obi Wan on the cloner planet and his interactions with Jango (genuine drama!), watching a group of jedi fight, the arena sequence (how can you not enjoy the tearing of the shirt to reveal Natalie Portman's midriff?)

Hate: Anakin and Amidala on Naboo ("I hate sand", frolicking in the fields, etc.), Obi Wan in a diner (WTF?!?), tedious political talk

Episode III:

Love: initial flight sequence, duel between Anakin and Obi Wan, duel between Yoda and Palpatine, sequence between Palpatine and Anakin at the theater, duel between Obi Wan and Greivous, the genuine drama when Anakin goes bad and helps Palpatine kill Mace Windu, subsequent slaughter of the Jedi

Hate: Any Anakin/Amidala interactions, Amidala generally (she became completely useless in this movie), the fact that she died "because she lost the will to live"? (Again, WTF?), the fact that you never quite believe or understand Anakin's transition from good guy to bad guy, or the fact that as Hayden Christiensen plays him, you never really think Anakin is all that good of a guy in the first place

So, anyway, I can only be sad when I think about what a different prequel trilogy might have been like, one that was more true to the spirit of the original films, and one that had better directors (Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro) at the helm.