Size isn't everything, you know.

What movie should I go see tonight, Steve?

And where's my coq au vin?

I'll go with Dirk Gently's comment over at the other place:

but you gotta admit, he's done a good job breathing life into other people's ideas.

Lucas' problem has often been micromanagement as he controls all aspects of the production. In the early Star Wars films, he got away with a lot of that, by the time he made the last 3, the whole thing was a joke.

Even in the first three, he should have let someone else do the dialog and he needed some help on the story lines. For example, when the Empire was finally vanquished, the rebels partied with the frapping Ewoks?

hey, ewoks know how to party.

"Silent Running" drones> R2D2

i still love Vader, dammit

Originality is wonderful, variety is the spice of life, but a reliable meat and potatoes meal is what we want most of the time. A good retelling of a story can often be appreciated as much as the spinning of a new yarn. I discovered Kurosawa through his Macbeth, "Throne of Blood". Star Wars is indeed a gigantic stew of old archetypes that have put on new cloths for our generation and many more to come. It may well be that only serious college students will ever know to whom these characters owe their original form.

Ever see "George Lucas in Love"?

Best George Lucas movie ever made, except he didn't make it.