The Force is treated no less mystically in teh PT - they only explain out the LINK between those that are force-sensitive and the link. The Midichlorians are NOT the force.
Anyway, that's what I keep telling myself.
Kidding aside, The great thing about all 3 of the original trilogy is that they were all enjoyable films, with the odd wincing moment, and many awesome ones. Like, I'd rate A New Hope something like 75% great, 20% good, 5% bad.
ESB: 85:13:2
RoTJ:70:22:8
You can argue all yuo want defending, how this is appropriate because of such and such reason, but the fact remains, that in Episode2, there are a large number of times I just wince.
Now, I REALLY like Episode I, it's on par overall with RotJ easily. Rotj, was a little weak, but some really outstanding scenes (space battle, and particularly lightsabre confrontation -really powerful stuff, asnd as Willco said, best score) really do elevate it. Same with TPM -lots of really good scenes - lightsabre battle, pod race, even the senate meetings were kinda cool. I don't mind midichlorians, I don't mind Jar jar. I don't mind Anakins dialogue and behaviour, only Jake Lloyd's portrayal (like someone said earlier - if he's going to Yipee, that's fine -kids do that -but he could atleast do it so that he looked happy.). In fact the only serious problem I had with TPM is the acting of Ric Olie (The Queens pilot) -he was by far the worst actor, in terms of not being able to cope with blue screen. Totally unconvincing. "That little droid did it! - by passed the main power drive!" - yes there's acting there, but inflection and stuff seem all wrong -it's not natural.
But overall, I'd still say TPM is probably somthing like 60% great, 30% good, 10 % bad.
Now Episode 2 falls flat mostly. The great scenes are few. I'd say 20% great, 45% good, and 35% outright bad. And that's me being generous. To me, that's a serious compromise in the series. One of the better performances comes from Christopher Lee, who still behaves and performs as a B-grade villain. this says something about Episode 2, and that's a real shame.
Probably the single most annoyng thing about Episode 2 was the portrayal of the universe at many moments - in that they were too "American". Aren't we supposed to be in another galaxy, far, far away? Isn't this a fantasy? SO why do the they still call their parents 'Mom'? It's something Americans may not realise, but it really snaps you out of the movie mood, when it's so blatantly American - yes, they all have American accents, but these kinds of lines just sound weird to me. I'm not asking for a "hello, Mater', but a Anakin referring to his mother as "Mother" would have been a huge improvement -keeps up teh mystique of the fantasy. After all, , "No Luke, *I* am your Dad!", just doesn't work the same does it?
It may sound like an odd complaint, but places like Jabbas palace and the canteen seemed out of this world, but the nightclub on coruscant? Deathsticks? a DINER FOR GODSAKES?! JEsus, it's another galaxy far far away, and the chef has 4 arms, and the best costume they can give him is a T-shirt? These things are really disturbing in a Star Wars universe. I'm surprised Obi-wan didn't order a coke and fries.
