Filming a movie like Star Wars is difficult no matter what technology you have. Back in 1977 CGI was a very new technology so for the most part a lot of the effects were practical; the ships were models filmed against blue screens, the aliens were people in expertly made costumes or by using masterful puppetry. This use of practical effects gave Star Wars it's incredible spectacle which amazed audiences in the 1970s and still continues to amaze people today with just how well done all of the special effects were.
It was quite a different story however with the prequel trilogy which abandoned practical effects for CGI that was still for the most part very unconvincing in comparison. This change caused Star Wars to lose it's charm and made it feel computerised and for the most part boring. George Lucas believed that people loved Star Wars purely for its spectacle as opposed to its story which was quite the opposite. Star Wars had become a pop culture phenomenon more for its original story over it's special effects, with this mentality Lucas abandoned practical effects because he was convinced they were inferior compared to the new CGI that had started to enter movies in the 1990s which was one of the main reasons the prequel trilogy was seen as lacklustre compared to the originals.
George Lucas wrote and directed the first Star Wars and was seemingly very lazy with his direction usually only giving one word orders, the crew jokingly made him cue cards with his most often used words to hold up for the actors. Lucas also wrote the dialogue for the first movie which actor Alec Guinness apparently regarded as ridiculous and a lot of the actors improvised their own dialogue.
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