This essay from Mel Valentine over at efilmcritic isn’t unique, it’s not too dissimilar from reactions such as Moriarty’s over at AICN, though that seemed to be more embargo related, and a lot of online reviewers who are also Star Wars fans who are bidding goodbye to Star Wars over the Star Wars Christmas Special or Clone Wars.

Personally I think Clone Wars is a crossroads mainly because it’s impossible for anyone over the age of 6 to get anything out of the movie or keep on denying that the backlash to The Phantom Menace was dead on, that George Lucas has completely lost it and that Star Wars exists mainly for the sake of merchandising. Clone Wars now has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 18 percent, which is seriously ugly. And while George Lucas will make money on it, the idea of a 15 million dollar opening for a Star Wars project is a joke, and one that Lucas helped to create by shortchanging the quality over and over again.

In a way Star Trek has done better than Star Wars or X-Files because Gene Roddenberry is dead and he quickly lost control over the franchise. Had the same Gene Roddenberry responsible for Star Trek TNG Season 1 and ST TMP kept on running Star Trek, I think the results might have been just as awful. Much as fans don’t like to recognize it, creation is a collaborative effort, and when a show or movie’s creator gains too much stature, it all goes to hell in a handbasket.