Lucas should have let Paul Verhoeven ("Starship Troopers") write & direct "Sith". Now, THAT would have been something to look forward to.
That's part of it, but like I posted above, Vader never really was the superior villain he had the potential to be. Satan tried to overthrow God, because he was fearless (stupidly fearless, but fearless nonetheless). A great villain always wants to be the baddest bad guy on the block. Vader was always content to be second banana. He was redeemed (and redeemable) in Return of the Jedi because he never really committed himself to being the best villain he could be. He could have been a contender, but he was just a chump.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1404326/posts?page=21#21
If you watch the recent Lucas interview on AOL, you'll hear him say that Vader was never intended to be a plain-ole one dimensional bad guy. The entire story of Star Wars was always originally about a fall from grace and then redemption. There is no watering down of Vader. It's just that all we saw with the old movies was Vader as villain.
Villains are never evil in their own minds. They often believe they are doing what they are doing for some greater good. It is from this that we get the really good tragedies.
Interesting take. Current zeitgeist reflected in film. Thirty years ago we had good and evil and Star Wars reflected that idea. Now in the age of mush where people are fearful of labeling good and bad we have the Star Wars prequels; full of psycho-babel, self doubt, and bad dialog!
That a GREAT POINT! .."Starship Troopers" was a great movie. :D
..the book was no slouch, either.
That can be handled well. Both villians in the Spider-Man films have clearly been pushed to mental illness, causing their turn to crime. That being said, they are no less evil.
Doc Ock, for example, won't let anything stand in his way in Spider-Man 2. He is a genuine homicidal (genius) maniac.