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This is the story of a man with too much power and the terrible things he did. No, not Emperor Palpatine. We’re talking about George Lucas, whose 1977 film Star Wars was a cinematic milestone that, along with 1975’s Jaws, ushered in the era of the Hollywood blockbuster. Almost two decades passed before Lucas’ next project as writer-director Episode I: The Phantom Menace. In that time, he amassed an incredible amount of wealth and leverage. Therefore no one could stop him when he came up with the ill-advised idea of making a trilogy of prequels focused on young Anakin Skywalker’s rise into Darth Vader. No one could stop him when he tried to explain the mystical, magical Force away with a quasi-scientific rationale; no one could stop him when he decided to cast a young child as the protagonist and feature a floppy eared character named Jar Jar Binks (the standard to which all corny sidekick characters are now compared); no one could stop him when he decided to film much of the film with computer generated backgrounds, thereby leaching the movie of any sense of vitality; no one could stop him from including an absolutely lifeless performance from Natalie Portman. No one could stop him!