All EXCELLENT points hborre. HOWEVER I don't think being depressingly over "Gothified" , and constantly launching convoluted sub plot assaults on your audience necessarily translates to "sophistication". The "new" generation is not necessarily more sophisticated than the one that proceeded it - they just have different tastes.

I actually didn't feel like I was being treated as a "mindless imbecile" watching the original, I actually had fun watching it. It was escapist, interesting, visually cool, and didn't have to resort to the absolute baser lower common denominators to entertain. True - it was at at times silly, cheezy, and even absurd - which is one of the things that made it fun. It also had wider family appeal.

It actually had the same ambience as the original AND the newer STAR WARS flicks (which is one of the reasons why George Lucas AND Twentieth Century Fox sued the bajeezus out of Universal over it). It had an operatic feel that was just hip. The original I BELIEVE had a longer running time than the new one (I'll have to check - buit I'm pretty sure about that one).