[H]

Finally saw it.  Has it happened though?  Am I just too old for Star Wars now?

Try to find out. When I go back to watch the OT, I'm finding new reasons to appreciate them more and more. I know this makes me psychotic but I also feel like the prequels have aged better in light of how derivative the new films have been.

I have watched the originals with the kids and I still feel like the originals had a much tighter storyline and the dialogue was simply better.  The prequels failed to deliver that level and the newer ones even less so.  I think that is the real issue I have with them.

Consider, Lord of the Rings doesn't have deep moral complexity, or a complex "realistic" story.  What it has is depth and style.  The original series had that, or the appearance of such.  The latter ones fail to really deliver anything on that level, in my opinion.  They try, but when you hit a home run on the first swing, you set the bar pretty high.

[Madness]

Something else on Wilshire and H's posts, look at the (former) EU. The original trilogy engendered all those imaginings specifically because every little thing wasn't spelled out in the OT, which - as per Bakker - is one of the mistakes story-tellers make, eventually cheapening their stories.

I have watched the originals with the kids and I still feel like the originals had a much tighter storyline and the dialogue was simply better.

I did this semi-recently too for ANH and ESB with the younger three. Despite the fact that they didn't even pay attention to a good portion of the middle of each and were running around playing while the SO and I laid in the table/blanket fort we made for them, even the four and (now) six year old were quoting portions of the movies to me over the next couple weeks.