thecolorsblend2 said:

I think the point is that a lot of things were done very unnecessarily. Look at the "Super Mario" chase through the factory in AOTC. What was that all about?

It's hard to believe that some sort of fight wouldn't take place when a Republic senator and the apprentice of a Jedi the Separatists had just captured wander in to the main production facility of said Separatists war machine.

Funny thing that. I don't recall seeing that much in the way of war machines even being visible in those scenes. I remember Anakin's arm getting locked down by a mold and then his saber getting destroyed (so much for being the chosen one). The only place I really remember things looking like a production line were when 3PO's body and head were separated in the droid construction area.

thecolorsblend2 said:

If we hold the OT to your same principle, I'd nominate the elimination of the Falcon vs. TIE fighter dog fight after Luke and co. escape from the Death Star. I always found it hard to believe that the Imperials really would've had enough time to scramble an entire squad of TIE fighters to intercept the escaping Falcon before it could make it to hyperspace. It seems like an excuse for another thrilling escape and a space battle, and little else. The same thing applies to the Falcon/space slug thing in ESB. That sequence doesn't tie directly in to the Rebels being pursued by the Empire so why have it? You could drop both sequences from the film without missing too much!

Of course, both sequences rock and nobody in their right mind would seriously suggest they don't belong in their respective movies. I'm just making a point here.

The SW films are, at the end of the day, adventure movies so you have to have action spectacles like that. Sometimes they're indespinsable to the plot, sometimes they aren't but they're fun... and that's the whole point.

And now I will make a counterpoint.

As BaronLando pointed out, there are several visible sentry ships in all the shots of the death star leading up to that point. Combine that with the following exchange:

Tarkin: Are they away?
Voice on comm: They've just made the jump into hyperspace.
Tarkin to Vader: I'm taking an awful risk Vader. This had better work.

And then with Leia's tracking comment, it was quite obvious that the TIEs had been prepared beforehand to give them a sense of having to fight their way out. They were being tracked, so if they had just been able to fly off without encountering resistance, it would've definitely seemed easy to Han.

The space slug was just another example of how things aren't always as they seem and that there's no end to the amount of alien lifeforms in the galaxy. In other words, they're not all bipedal. And yes, it was a way to give the viewer a rest before throwing everyone back into the action. But since it wasn't "We'll just stop behind this pointless force field", it actually made a little bit of sense.

Here's an even more extreme example of "What the hell is this for?" from TPM. On Naboo, during the saber fight, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Darth Maul end up in an area that looks like it's for power generation. At some point, they're fighting down a hall that has pink shields for separating areas. What exactly is the purpose of these shields? What function are they really needed for on Naboo? Lucas and McCallum have been asked this question, in public, at least twice. Both times the answer was "They add dramatic tension by separating the foes from each other, but letting each other see their actions". Um, DUH! Again, we're not that stupid. What the questioner meant was "What is their purpose on the planet, not in filmese". That question, as far as I know, has still never been answered. And I personally think the explanation is lame.