If there is one thing the prequel trilogy has going for it by going overboard with CGI is the look. It looks nearly nothing like the original trilogy. This always bothered me as I felt that after awhile the different looking prequels separated themselves from the original. The originals felt real and felt like they had weight, and a impact on the world they inhabited. In Empire the AT-ATs felt real. Even though they were models they felt real, they felt like large mechanical monstrosities which shook the very ground the walked on. In the prequel trilogy they were and felt like CGI creations. The planets and cgi aliens and vehicles which inhabited the world had no realism to them, you know they were cgi and shiny and had no presence on the screen.
This used to bother me but as I started watching a New Hope right after Revenge of the Sith, I noticed the stark contrast between the two and it finally hit me. The look of the original trilogy, typically after the prequels looked real but it also looked gritty. It looked post-apocalyptic, it looked run down, dirty, and dangerous. It looked like a galaxy ravaged by a power hungry empire after a golden aged republic. Even the camera angles and shots were smaller, more focused and less grandiose and sweeping. The original trilogy despite the magnitude of the battles is a smaller and more closed galaxy.
This was probably unintentional but when watching in order I love the way this look works. It really brings the universe alive even more and brings the oppressed atmosphere alive. It really does make it look like dark times and the desperation for the Rebel Alliance all the more important.
I never thought I would use apocalyptic and Star Wars in the same sentence, but two separate tastes which taste great together.
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