"No more pointless characters (Jar Jar Binks)?"

you forgot that annoying little #%@$ Anakin :P

unfortunately annoying characters and annoying 'superkids' are a trend thats not going to be dying out anytime soon.   gritty oldskool sci-fi has been slowly dying to make way for family-friendly bullshit with comic relief, since that has more mass appeal.

the last good sci-fi movie i saw was Pandorum, and it bombed in the box office :(