Star Wars - Third time's a charm?

So, by now I am guessing that everyone has heard about Lucasfilm's announcement regarding their intention to re-re-release all 6 Star Wars movies in 3D, starting with Episode 1 The Phantom Menace in 2012.

On the surface this sounds really frakkin' awesome!  I mean really - what could possibly be better than 3D Star Wars?  Imagine the light saber duels!  Picture the Death Star exploding!!  Blaster bolts zooming all around the theater!  Pretty cool, right?

Possibly.  Or maybe not.  As we all know, movies that were filmed in the new RealD 3D technology look AMAZING!  But we also know that movies which were not filmed in 3D, but later converted to 3D, don't look nearly as nice.  And while I'm sure that it would be carefully and lovingly converted, the fact remains that it is still a conversion.

For myself, this announcement sort of makes me feel that Lucas has run out of steam.  Apparently they have no more good ideas, and so they just want to trot out the same movies again.  And again.  And again.

What would be really awesome would be if they would move the story forward into the future.  There have been some really amazing novels written in the Star Wars Universe that take place after the Emperor and Darth Vader are destroyed.  There's a whole galaxy that had to be put back together, ya' know?  Why not take "The Thrawn Trilogy" by Timothy Zahn, and make movies of those novels?

1. Heir to the Empire, 1991
   
2. Dark Force Rising, 1992
   
3. The Last Command, 1993

Or if they don't want to have to deal with existing stories in existing novels due to copyright issues, etc, well there are still plenty of gaps in the storyline.  Create something new - tell us a new story, something we haven't imagined yet!

But please don't just re-hash the same movies over and over and expect us all to cheerfully pay extra for the "privilege" of watching the same story - again - in 3D.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me hear your opinion!!