I'm guessing GL had too many "yes" men around him during the prequels. He does really well when there are people pushing back, and when he has strong-willed collaborators. He's great at overall vision, film editing (although I think these films weren't cut very well--where the hell is Padme's story in III? Why didn't we get to see the Rebellion form?!), worldbuilding, but he's not great a dialogue (so much cringe!) or character development. The bad, overused CGI really does not help. Granted, this was a very hard story to tell--people like optimistic endings, and the entire trilogy was about Anakin's fall--but it wasn't well executed, to me, and it was salt in the wound when they replaced Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen at the end of RotJ. At that point, a viewer like me is just reminded every time they watch the OT how much they dislike the prequels!
The sequels feel more like Marvel movies to me, and frankly I just don't like those. For instance, in the scene in TFA when Poe faces Ben (I can't even remember his villain name!!), they crouch down and then Poe does the whole "who speaks first?" gambit, Ben loses credibility as a villain instantly. Who could feel any threat from him after that? And the tone was all wrong--Star Wars is campy, sure, but it takes itself seriously.
In both cases, I really dislike how small they make the SW universe. It feels so expansive in the OT, but both other projects had this strange compulsion (perhaps borne out of a feeling of inferiority or lack of confidence in their material) to tie in every little thing to the OT, to the point where it causes problems when you watch the OT. (How does it make sense for Obi-wan to say he doesn't remember R2? And where did R2's jetpack go? That could've come in handy.)
LOL I have fully embraced the power of the dark side! At least there's plenty of opportunity for "fix-it" fics with both.
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The sequels feel more like Marvel movies to me, and frankly I just don't like those. For instance, in the scene in TFA when Poe faces Ben (I can't even remember his villain name!!), they crouch down and then Poe does the whole "who speaks first?" gambit, Ben loses credibility as a villain instantly. Who could feel any threat from him after that? And the tone was all wrong--Star Wars is campy, sure, but it takes itself seriously.
In both cases, I really dislike how small they make the SW universe. It feels so expansive in the OT, but both other projects had this strange compulsion (perhaps borne out of a feeling of inferiority or lack of confidence in their material) to tie in every little thing to the OT, to the point where it causes problems when you watch the OT. (How does it make sense for Obi-wan to say he doesn't remember R2? And where did R2's jetpack go? That could've come in handy.)
LOL I have fully embraced the power of the dark side! At least there's plenty of opportunity for "fix-it" fics with both.