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"I do know that Lucas is pretty famous for not giving actors any kind of useful direction to help them find the tone and emotion of the character."

That assumes that the characters have any tone or emotion to begin with - a contention with which I would take issue.

I've read that the actors, their improvisation, and their chemistry with each other(on screen and off) are the only reasons the original trilogy characters had any character. Lucas was a non-factor. I can't remember which one said it(I think it was Ford), but it was along the lines of "George, you can write this crap, but you can't get us to say it."

This theory pretty much pans out in TPM and AotC. At the beginning of AotC, an assasination attempt is made on Amidala's life, and we, the audience, are supposed to be shocked and fear for her life. However, TPM did such a lousy job of getting the audience emotionally invested in any of the characters(well, except for pure hatred for Jar Jar, but that wasn't intentional), that all the events in AotC became, to quote Homer Simpson - "just a bunch of stuff that happened."

Agreed.

Lucas also has gone out of his way to introduce "this-world" slang and catchphrases, and even parodies his own creation by inserting phrases from the originals that have no context(ex. the droid telling R2 that droids aren't allowed in the bar. uhhh)

Whatever bad lines the originals had were more than made up for, by the abundance of GREAT and MEMORABLE lines. The actors, even the PRINCESS Leia, spoke Standard MODERN English. Lucas cannot write formal dialogue, this is clear from his lame attempts in TPM and AOTC. THe movies don't lack the emotional core due to formality. LotR proves that you can write in elevated English and still have incredible depth and feeling to each character and his lines.

CGI is not terrible, but why were the clone troopers all-CGI? Why are entire backgrounds CGI, so the real-world feel of teh old movies is gone? The genius of the Carbonite Chamber in ESB is that it's all real. The lighting, the structures, the design, it's all real. That's what makes it so special.

Anyone want to guess what stands out 50 years from now between ESB's Cloud City or that, uh, hangar? on Geonosis in AOTC? Which duel will be remembered for all time? Luke/Vader or Dooku/Yoda?(well the Yoda fight will be remembered like we look back on some embarrassing thing we did as kids)

Lucas has upped the pacing at TIMES in these films but has forgotten to keep it NATURAL. We feel NO pull for deaths in these films. Even Vader's choking victims evoked more sympathy.

The lines often don't make sense either. Why would the double for Padme say she failed after the assassination attempt? She SUCCEEDED, that's why she's there as a double, to draw fire. But if you're a hack writer, saying "I failed you" may sound more dramatic. A GOOD writer would realize that it doesn't fit. A GREAT writer would have made SW just as successful for a new generation and a worthy competitor to LotR, on the level of significance if nothing else.