Originally Posted by
Ba5tard5word
For one thing Lucas produced it, he got some other guy to direct it. That could mean a lot of things though, producers often meddle, and Lucas hasn't made anything good since the 80's.
If it is just an action movie that tells the story of what happened in a relatively exciting way with a lot of realism I think it could be good, like Saving Private Ryan. But the reason you never see aviation warfare movies anymore is that audiences for action movies have changed so much--ironically many say that Star Wars is to blame, creating an audience that craves big-budget blockbusters with broad appeal to everyone, which means unrealistic effects, corny dialogue with pointless humor, silly plots. The original Star Wars films pulled it off well but some say it spawned all the corny action movies of the 80's and the current trend towards Michael Bay-style movies. But before SW you saw a lot of smart, serious war movies that you never see anymore. Lucas has said he just wants to tell the story, and that he didn't force it to be a Hollywood-friendly movie, but I really wonder if he's internalized the notion that all action movies have to go for a lowest common denominator audience, he's certainly gone for this in all his 90's and 00's movies.
On the other hand I generally hate Spielberg with a passion but I can't deny that he did a fantastic job with Saving Private Ryan, which is really one of the best war movies of all time because it combines brutal special effects with a decent storyline and really gritty and believeable action scenes.