This whole angle of Star Wars-as-modern myth/Important Movie has been pushed pretty hard the last 20 years. It's easy to picture someone new (like young people or everybody's wives and girlfriends like in the other thread) finally seeing the trilogy now and saying "that's it?"

The prequels go along with this newer angle and have a lot of artificial weightiness and frowning. But it's an awkward fit since the actual goal in 77-83 was this...other thing. A space western/adventure. Even the dagobah scenes in Empire, which are the deepest thing in the original trilogy, are pretty basic. I remember one director, possibly Tarantino, comparing those scenes to the time-honored pulpy tradition of the young cowboy who spends the middle of the movie learning from the older, wiser gunfighter/or Indian, like in Nevada Smith. But these days people generally bust out myth textbooks or the Joseph Campbell chart for anything involving Yoda. It's almost like coming back to Die Hard years later and expecting The Godfather. It's not The Godfather, but it's not even trying to be.