haljordan28...wow,bud. You have way to much time on your hands! Your disection of the PT and utter hate and contempt of DARTH LUCAS has become,it seems quite an obsession! I'm a fan from '77 to this day,as well. I too wanted much more from the PT. It's a bit sad cause I know a LOT of terrific people worked their asses off to make them. I won't get into specifics about each movie,but in my opinion was doomed to fail no matter what. The expectations from us" OT fan/nutjobs" was too overwhelming. We'd watched and watched the originals,ad nauseum. We wanted,well something else. I too remember the documentary where he said "too many film makers rely to heavily on special effects and not enough on the story,which is what makes the movie great", but look at what he was facing...legions of fans expecting the second coming! All the movies made after ROTJ were FULL of newer and faster SPFX. The new movie goer wanted more and MORE CGI. More intense action,more realistic experiences. Concerning the topic of this discussion "lightsaber fights"I always thought the fights in the OT were less,well acrobatic is because the duels themselves were'nt the major thing going on,it was the duel between the characters themselves that was more important....that's why to this day I feel they are perfect just as they are,whereas the duels in the PT were more about showing the power of the duelists,...Darth Maul was trained specifically to best his opponents...his lightsaber fighting WAS his character. The Jedi at that time were excellent duelists,but they had'nt had to fight another foe like this sithlord before and it was only Maul's overconfidence that killed him.
Skipping to ROTS, well Grievous was trained by Dooku,however he was NOT a Jedi or Sith....even with four lightsabers he could not best a Jedi with the strength of Obi Wan....Sidious was a volcano waiting to erupt! His mastery of the darkside and skill with his weapon was too much for the unsuspecting group of jedi. He utilized his mindpowers as well as his saberskills to jump into the fray and before they knew it dispatched two before they knew what hit them. It did'nt diminish how strong the Jedi masters were,but Sidious's time had come and he was way to strong. Ok,Ok...i'm getting longwinded and anyone with love and devotion for any of these films is great to me....but Lucas isn't the devil, as the song goes,"He tried his best....but his best wasn't good enough"...for some anyway. May the force be with all you guys and gals!