Hate to bring this up, but the problem with SW:1 wasn't that it didn't have any familiar characters. SW:1 was aimed at children, and was poorly done so. Jara-Jar Binks was possibly the stupidest and most pointless character in the history of cinema. Anakin Skywalker should have been older (say 14ish) so that they could find an actor that wasn't so unbelievably bad.
Plus the plot sucked. There was no grand purpose to it, like in the other movies. I do not mean to suggest that every movie must have some grand message or purpose, but it has to have some. I mean, seriously, who wants to sit through 2 hours of a trade dispute? The evil jedi guys were a plus, but they had a grand total of what...20 minutes of screen time?
That movie blowed chunks, and the rest will too. George Lucas is going to feel obligated to include characters such as Jar-Jar Binks in the next 2 movies. If he includes dumbed-down cutesy characters, he will be forced to dumb down the entire movie.
I accept that movies are supposed to be fun, and that is all I expect from a movie. I am no Star Wars fan, and this newest installment made me actually dislike the series, not just have no opinion on it.