I for one have never thought of the special effects in the original trilogy as "bleak, dull, and colorless." I have never been watching the original Star Wars and thought, "You know, they really need more CG explosions and flying ships right about here." I think it has as many special effects as it needs. I mean, come one! They spend the beginning of the movie in a backwoods desert for crying out loud! And then the second third of the movie is in hallways of a command station. Not really much of a need for visual effects beyond blaster fire and lightsabers, is there? And then there's the Yavin battle with so many optical effects that it made Alec Guiness's head spin. And I assume you're only talking about the first movie as being too sparse as far as special effects because Empire and Return are chock full of them without being overdone. Love to see the prequels attempt that kind of balance.