Episode IV and V were supposedly children’s films but not really as Lucas was still an arthouse 'artist' at that period of his film career, and he had a lot of experienced hands-on help (his wife and other directors/producers).
So as a child watching them you felt it could 'be real' as there were pretty grown up in how they told their stories, from his aunt and uncle being murdered by the storm-troopers near the start of Star Wars all the way through to Vader revealing he was his father in Empire Strikes Back. The first two films are pure old-school sci-fi fantasy with a thread of dark topics in which 'good' tries to triumph over 'evil' and in a style of film production/story telling what was typical from that era of film production (the influence of Akira Kurosawa, Kubrick etc).
You can go back and enjoy these films entirely as an adult and not feel your being talked down too, or spoon fed poop and fart jokes to make them children's films.
Episode VI started to move in a different, less 'grown up' direction. The financial success of the franchise bringing it's own changes to the film. Spielberg famously introduced Lucas to the idea of 'aiming at children' to help maximise the profits from selling toys etc. We got the Ewoks, which did not need to be as cute as they were (and were meant to be Wookies in the original drafts), but was the first sign of that slip towards focusing Star Wars specifically at children. Most people agree it was the 'weakest' of the original trilogy, but i still think not a bad film at all.
Episodes I was pure crud, childish where ever possible, even if breaking any tension in the story. And it was clear that at this stage of his film making career (and as an extremely wealthy man) Lucas needed good people around him, as he had in the original trilogy, to get the best from his ideas. Sadly he was powerful enough now to not allow that to happen, and well the difference from the original trilogy to the second trilogy is painfully apparent. Episode I retains the unique title of being the only film i have actually fallen asleep in (briefly), not because i was tired, but because I was in a state of constantly waiting for things to pick up and get interesting, for the characters to become interesting, for the plot and story to remain interesting, and it just never did.
Episodes II and III were very much reactionary developed films, created to address the vocal criticism of Episode 1, but still full of all the same problems that came with Lucas at that stage; totally awful dialogue, greed over 'art' and over-reliance on fan-winks based on the much better original trilogy, and the desire to not let other people help shape his visions.
Episodes I-III are a mess, all over the place; from 'poop' jokes and Jar-Jar for 'the children' to mind numbing writing and story telling.
If anyone has not seen them i really recommend watching 'The People vs George Lucas' and any/all of the Redletter Media reviews on Episodes I-III. They pretty much nail the main problems.
I'd also recommend looking for the specific versions of the original trilogy that includes the original release versions as well as the later updated Lucas versions (Han shoots after Greedo and characters stepping in 'poop' stuff). There is only one version of this box set, so only one way to own the real original films on anything other than VHS.
As for the 'new' Star Wars, i never doubted it would not be just like the 'new' Star Trek; completely different to the source and 100% totally not getting what made the originals such great films. They have their fans, as do much of modern day movies, but they are just not actually Star Wars films any more, not for this fan. I just don't need them or want them in this form, they are totally uninteresting stories, badly told.
Looking around at most movies currently i just think we do not have a film production system that can allow anything other than low-brow, lowest common denominator, 'lite' stuff to get made, not in terms of films that have 'block buster' aspirations. So big famous franchises just disappear into the mire of 'instantly forgettable', rather than 'all time classic'. That is the price of 'progress' it seems? All i can do is not give them money to 'validate' their poor excuse for existence, the last thing i want is to encourage more of this trend.
RIP Star Wars (Star Trek etc). You will forever be remembered (in this household) for the incredible early episodes (and series), and the rest will be left to wither down the passage of time, a curious and undesirable shift in your journey of stand-out uniqueness.
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x lots. Not wanting to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it so no details. So much wasn't right in the way it was done, quite disappointed and I could pick holes in it and be an armchair director for some time.... It got better towards the end but those were dark times, what's with all the tweeness. I will say the scene when that thing jumps into that other thing was one of the coolest scenes I have watched in any movie full stop. it was not epic. It should have been epic.
