I am utterly confused by the turn of events. The first trilogy convinced me Lucas was amazingly talented. The dialog was good, but funny. The characters were characters. I feel like the criticisms here are pretty valid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI

I'm at a loss as to why what he produced in his 50's would be so much worse. Shouldn't Lucas be the old wizened sage--the Obi Wan of films by now? What happened?