Nice to hear your thoughts, John.

I saw it for the second time last week. I actually enjoyed it more - not having to worry about how things were handled, etc. This movie was very tricky from a writing/directing perspective. GL could have easily dropped the ball on this one - considering how many people had pre-conceived notions of how things were supposed to progress.

Anyway - I agree that the effects were overdone - but that was Star Wars has always been about. It's just that relatively, the originals now look very organic - when in fact, at the time, they were cutting edge and some critics complained that the whole affair was like effects masturbation - all show, no story.

Shows what 20 years of nostalgia will do for you.