George Lucas: Empire was the worst Star Wars movie » Netscape.com
Ran across a reference to this whilst browsing around chasing down references to the next Star Trek movie. Apparently, George Lucas said at a Publicists' Guild luncheon that "The Empire Strikes Back" was his worst movie. Funny, my friend Kevin and I had just agreed that "Empire" was the best.
That seems to be the general consensus among most SW fans (your and Kevin’s conclusion, that is, not George’s).
Though that goes a long way toward explaining Eps 1-3 …
I read in a later comment elsewhere that it was supposed to be a joke, as Lucas had a lot less to do with that movie than with the others. Which probably was what made it the best movie of the first three, and probably of the entire series.