George Lucas is aging, and it shows
And I can sympathize with him, because he is not much older than I. But my point is that the last two Star Wars movies lack the youthful exuberance of the first three. Lucas is a Big Name now, with a Big Business to maintain. Life is much more serious for Lucas now than 25 years ago.

That is the chief shortfall of episodes one and two. Lucas took them too seriously. In episodes four - six, Lucas was out to have fun, push the envelope of movie-making and make a pile of dough. He succeeded an all three counts. But in episodes one and two, all he's done is make a lot of money.

The comparitive shortfalls even of episode two, Attack of the Clones, is stark when you do as I did - see the movie one day and put Return of the Jedi in the VCR the next day. AOTC does not have the "snap" and bon vivant of ROTJ or its predecessors. The characterizations of Solo, Leia, Luke, Chewie and Lando are like nothing so much as frat brothers out to save the universe, sort of like "Luke and Leia's Excellent Adventure." And Darth vader is truly menacing. When he arrives at the behind-schedule Death Star in ROTJ, he tells the commander to get back on schedule because the emperor is not pleased, "And the emperor is less forgiving than I am." Chills run down your spine.

But the younger Obi Wan is plodding and robotic. The barely-shaving Anakin in AOTC is just a spolied brat. Murderous, yes, but not menacing. Vader is cold and calculating, always in control. He's a planner who looks ahead and who takes real risks to achieve his ends. Vader is an accomplished warrior, but generally lets others do the combat when the time for fighting is right. But Anakin is hot-headed and tempestuous. His planning horizon is maybe to this afternoon. He lives only in the "now." He rushes to fight Dooku when the smart move would have been to follow Obi Wans's lead. He slaughters the Tuscan raiders for the death of his mother, but Vader would not have done that. Vader is beyond revenge; he would not waste his time on non-essentials.

How will Lucas show the transition form a immature, spoiled and slight-of-build Anakin to the self-controlled, commanding and hulking Vader? That is the major task for episode four, that and showing how Leia and Luke came on the scene, and what happened to Padme and Anakin. And along the way, George, have some fun and quit making social statements. Okay?