"Cheap" was the wrong word...the quality has been good.
I mean more "tired"...as in Thor 3, ironman 4, cap 3, hulk 2, and avengers 3 all potentially on deck...
I'm not sure if you are one of them, but some folks automatically dislike a movie if it has a number at the end. In some cases I understand this. If a great one shot movie is released, then we really don't need a sequel just because it performed well. In other words, if they announced Fight Club 2 tomorrow, I'd be pissed. Then there are sequels in franchises that aren't necessary. The latest Indiana Jones appeared to be that to me. Do I want more Indiana Jone's movies? Sure. Do I want movies pretending to be Indiana Jones by using the name but missing all the content that *defines* Indiana Jones? No sir, I don't.
Marvel is a different boat though. By their nature, comics are serialized stories. Complaining about Thor 3 is sort of funny to me. That's like going to the comic book store and complaining that they just released Spiderman #950 (You know, I actually tried to go see what number they were at... and couldn't figure it out because they have splintered the Spidey comic line so much and restarted it so many times... christ). My point being, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Ant Man, and the rest of the crew have decades of storylines and countless comic books behind them. Personally, I'm tired of the old formula of releasing a trilogy of movies and then rebooting. I'm so sick of Batman origin movies. And here they are about to drop another new batman on us. How are the movies ever supposed to delve into the really interesting mechanics that drive these guys if we only ever get an origin story, a follow-up where they loose their power and have to rediscover themselves, and a crossover/team-up movie with a world ending finale.
Personally, I don't read comics apart from buying the occasional giant walking dead hardcover. It takes me longer to acquire the 6 sheets of paper, find a place to sit down and read them, and get comfortable than it does to actually read the dang thing. It's like reading a novel one paragraph at a time, but knowing the author of the novel could change at any time. But occasionally comics do capture lightning in a bottle, so when a movie or video game or some other medium can take that and adapt it - then I am all for it. I recently played through the Batman Arkham Knight game and absolutely loved the story line there. It did things with the Batman/Joker relationship that no movie has ever touched.
If ever there was a format that cried out for numbered sequels, it's comic book movies. The one caveat being - give me a good storyline. Don't make Iron man 4 just for the sake of releasing a 4th Iron Man movie. Make sure it adds to his character, adds to the overall universe in someway, and helps add value to the MU as a whole. For the most part, I'd say they have been doing this. I actually have the reverse fear compared to you. There has been a lot of talk about Phase 3 being the end of it. The last thing I want is for them to wrap all this up and then in 2025 they reboot it all over again. They have hundreds of issues of content to mine.... why reboot or finish off anything until you have no stories left to tell? The aversion to sequels just doesn't fly when you are creating movies based on material that has been serialized for the better part of the last century.
For me...and I was willing to give a mulligan for ep 1 while they "found their footing"...because I thought "hmmm...been along time since last crusade and maybe they are out of practice at doing full movies at lucasfilm"...
That was my exact rational. I figured they were a bit rusty and since they knew how it was all going to wrap up (just like the audience) they were having trouble getting the ball rolling. During Ep 1 I sat there in a stupor. My brain was telling me something was wrong, my heart was telling me "who cares, it's Star Wars", and my eyes were saying "it sure is shiny and flashy..... *too* shiny and flashy....".
When Darth Maul died, that was the moment I began to realize all the warnings in my head were on to something. This was the guy who had kept me interested in what was going to happen through a trade federation set, a roll in the hay with a bunch of Jamaican aliens that talked like a reject sesame street muppet, a bunch of poorly framed conversations, a pod race that reminded me why I don't watch Nascar, and a completely stale relationship between Qui Gon and Obi Wan. And now he was dead.... The thing I liked most about the whole dang movie.
Like you, during AOTC I realized it was just more mumbo jumbo. By this time, the CGI started really grating on me. They simply didn't have the technology to make the environments look real, and the speed in which they panned through them rarely matched the speed in which the actors walked on set. By the time we ended up genosha I just didn't care much. I didn't see how any of this had to do with anything. Then there was Dooku. The most shoehorned bad guy ever.
I had no illusions going into Episode 3 that the movie as a whole would be good. But I made a mistake assuming that the creation of Vadar himself would be awesome. Yet again I assumed that it could not be screwed up. Instead I got Frankeberry and the Noooooooos.
I am not typically a violent person, but I think I would take joy in punching Lucas right in that smug face. Sure, guys like Kurtz and crew bear some responsibility, but that boils down to them not just saying no to Lucas. And who knows, if they had said no, what was to stop Lucas from just firing them. He is known for that crap.
I think it says a lot that both actors who played Anakin had their careers destroyed. The actor who played the little kid just got arrested this year and has a history of being a complete prick in interviews and blaming his whole childhood on the movies. And Hayden had to go start his own studio with his brother just to keep getting work.
.... even the friggin serving droid that opens Episode 1 can "sense" a Jedi, as he tells the trade fedration guys that there are two men, likely Jedi's, waiting for them. And that's enough info right there for them to try and Gas them and blow up their ship.
