Yeah but I’m pretty sure the live action was some other aspect ratio than 2.35:1 (16:9 probably?) hard-matted to the correct ratio. Thus the actual live action footage from AOTC and ROTS aren’t even full 1080p, much less true 2k
Well yeah, but Lucas’ entire goal with shooting it digitally was to remove film from the production process altogether so that he wouldn’t have the extra (and costly) step of scanning in practically every shot of the movie like he did on TPM.
The camera footage was only 1920 by 817, yes, but since so much of what you’re seeing in the finished movie is mostly or entirely cgi (presumably rendered at full 2k), I think we should “ignore” the resolution of the live-action source.
Avatar used 2/3" 1080p Sony cameras much like the ones used on RotS, and some of the 100% cgi shots were rendered at 3k just so they would really shine in the 70mm Imax version.
Clones and Sith will always look jarringly out of place with the other “main saga” films to me, although I have to admit they actually looked okay when intercut with the others during the AFI John Williams tribute the other week. Maybe it was the editing.