George Lucas

If you had one chance to guess who might've directed this film (hint: he did just about everything else, too …), who would you name?

Whoa. How did you know? Yup, George Lucas not only wrote and produced Revenge of the Sith, he directed it as well. He's a man of many hats, that Lucas.

But, while his artistic vision is undeniably genius, many critics think this might be one instance in which the film might have turned out better if he'd have let some other people have some input.

Peter Bradshaw, a reviewer for The Guardian, was pretty bitterly disappointed in the film and blames it purely on the undiluted Lucas-ness of the whole thing:

George Lucas is now not so much a director as chief executive-cum-potentate in charge of a vastly profitable franchise empire in which striking back is not an option. And within this empire's boundaries, Lucas is so mind-bogglingly powerful that none of his lieutenants dares tell him the truth: that yet another Something of the Something title, after Attack of the Clones and Return of the Jedi, is pretty annoying. (Source)

While the biliousness of Bradshaw's review needs to be taken with a grain of salt, you'll be hard-pressed to find a reviewer who wasn't disappointed with something about Revenge. That's just the truth.

But, George Lucas had his work cut out for him. He was, after all, following up what is possibly the most popular trilogy of all time. There's a near-religious fanaticism that follows the original Star Wars trilogy (that is, Episodes IV-VI), and we have the sneaking suspicion that almost nothing could live up to fans' expectations.

After all, nostalgia is a pretty powerful force—although we're not sure if it falls on the light or dark side of the spectrum.