Indeed. I reckon this was George Lucas' problem with Star Wars Ep I. With the original trilogy there were 20th Century Fox execs often telling him to make changes whenever they thought something may not have been a good idea... Luke Starkiller --> Luke Skywalker, Revenge of the Jedi --> Return of the Jedi etc. But after over 20 years of Star Wars becoming deeply entrenched in pop culture, by time Lucas started making The Phantom Menace he would've been surrounded by people who grew up loving Star Wars and would've worshipped the ground that he walked on. You think about it, hardly anyone ever said anything bad about George Lucas before The Phantom Menace. Everyone was probably like, "Yes Mr. Lucas." "Great idea Mr. Lucas!" etc. -- he would've been surrounded by yesmen who thought that the sun shone out of his rear.Originally Posted by SMHFConvoy
But to Lucas' credit he did quickly take onboard a lot of the criticisms from the first movie. He hired someone to co-write Attack of the Clones and other people who were willing to tell him straight when something wasn't such a good idea; and you can see it. One of the biggest criticisms against Phantom Menace was Jar Jar Binks, particularly because he had such an overwhelming presence in the movie that wasn't matched by his contribution to the story (or lack of). Similar to the way that TF fans complain about Wheelie and Daniel. But by Attack of the Clones Jar Jar Binks had a far different presence (i.e.: only appeared in the movie when he _needed_ to, like to push for granting supreme executive power to Palpatine in the senate instead of snapping food with his tongue or sniffing animal farts) - and in Revenge of the Sith he only appears once (at Amidala's funeral) and has _no_ dialogue!
Whenever I ask most people, "Which is your favourite Star Wars movie?" most people answer either "Empire Strikes Back" or "Return of the Jedi" -- the two Star Wars movies that George Lucas did NOT direct!
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