I think the color correction that you did to change the time of day will look pretty good. Lucas did it with Star Wars after all. The most digital looking scene for me in episode II is the start of the Clone War. Uggh, but I know you reedited that to give it a sense of purpose and a point. I think the problem with the colors was that the camera never picked up the full vibrancy and muddied some of the images, especially the CG and dark scenes. I just don't know how that can be fixed. With the saturation, some of the scenes probably looked a little too sweetened to cover the lack of good color vibrancy but then desaturating them reveals the lack of good subtle color pickup in the first place. I know you added a little grain but did you do anything else besides darkening and desaturation in most scenes. I feel there might be other ways to cover up the sickeningly sweet shinyness without having to take away the color. Would boosting the midtones or contrast work?
Using LotR as an example, I'm afraid desaturation alone would just make it look more like the top image. Any way to make it more like the bottom (my fix)?

http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/6316/1frodo376correctedresizwu4.jpg

[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]

The color tint issue I saw with some of the bar scenes is similar to the top image here. But I agree that it needed a more Mos Eisley cantina atmosphere.

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8584/1aragorn4correctedresizxj5.jpg

[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]

I was also wondering, what do you think about the cinamatography and color of The Phantom Menace?