So right on the director point! I've been saying for years these are fantastic actors so it wasn't them...it was the director. Also saw an interesting theory the other day that the dialogue and overall story was purposefully shittier/more caricature bc it was a sequel so they wanted to give off the appearance of it being older a.k.a. worst. I don't know if that was just someone trying to figure out some way to justify some of the flaws but thought it was interesting. I personally don't mind them and I love episode 3 but it was also my childhood so probably biased. definitely can still see the flaws.