So I am sad to see him retire, what ever I think about the three recent films it cannot detract from the revelation that A New Hope etc were to the audiences back in the 70's. Ever since I first saw it I was hooked on the films, owning it on more formats (including laser disk) and in more formats than i care to recall.
The problem was when he started to believe his own publicity. The re-hashed versions of the first 3 films did little for me, but they werent that bad (however I am still gutted that he made Han shoot second) - similar to how I enjoy the sight variations on a theme with Blade Runner re-cuts.
But, and boy, did he fail bad, I am sorry to those that like, but PM was dire. It seemed that the plot, the dialogue etc was put so far down the list of prioirites (after special effects) that it didnt register. From what I have read now it seems people were just to scared (or thats what they claim) to tell him the truth. So now I can't watch PM due to Anakin shouting "Yippee!" every two minutes, Jar Jar Binks - 'nuff said, let alone the remaining dialogue written by a 4 year old... Its redeeming feature was well Darth Maul who uttered one line....
The second and third films did get better, (they would have had to really try hard to get worse) with RotS becoming almost watchable more than once every six months. I have to say I still can't decide if I blame the key actors for some of the films faults or just the poor scripts / direction they were given to work with.
So to Mr Lucas thanking for creating the universe I adore, and please enjoy your retirement.