I truly love the idea that the Force was a simple power that allowed you to accomplish things that were beyond the range of normal people, within a believable margin. I have been reading the Thrawn trilogy, and I found that in the first book looks states in thought that not even a Jedi could fall from five stories up and hope to live. While this could easily be pushed away as simply him not being fully trained, I like to believe that while the Force is incredibly powerful, it does not make one a god.
I loved that scene from the Vth movie, where Yoda lifts the X-wing out of the swamp. It showed that a Jedi could accomplish a normally impossible task for one man, while not being this all-powerful being who could do anything. From the same movie, we see Vader choke a man from across the
Executor, with only his thought. Throughout all those early movies, what we see for the Force is simply an enhanced jump, tricking the weak minded, choking people left and right, lightning, difficult to understand visions of the future, being able to tell where a blaster shot was going to be in time to deflect it, deflecting a blaster shot with one's hand (probably a mix of the glove and the Force, not sure), sensing other Force users presence, enhanced stamina, and basic telekinesis.
The Force was simple, that was part of the charm. It didn't make you super man, flying around and bulletproof. It made you super human, but not
super human. Only two people had power that seemed beyond belief, and those were Yoda and the Emperor. Even they died in the end. They were very powerful, but neither had these god abilities that made them unkillable. Yoda died of age, and Palpatine died of being betrayed and thrown over a ledge.
Then movies I, II, and III came out. They changed the whole game. Force users were practically demi-gods. They could fall from incredibly heights, could leap around like they were insects, and the only way to kill them was trickery on a massive scale and powerful non-Force users, like Grevious or Jango. Dooku, a Sith who was nowhere near as powerful as Palpatine could take out two younger, stronger, and potentially more powerful men. Yoda leaped around as if he were on fire. Palpatine was almost capable of the same. It seemed that those three movies, because they were targeted towards a completely different audience than the original three, dropped the bar that had been set by the original three.
The original trilogy had a feeling to them. They had an emotion around them, that touched me. I love Star Wars because of those first three, and I have watched the other three because I loved those original three. I look forward to the next three because of those original three. The way the Force was interpreted was amazing in IV, V, and VI. It had a more awe-inspiring element to it. Whereas the other three movies made those moves seem trivial. While some of the things they do, the duels with Maul, Yoda vs. Palpatine, Obi-wan vs. Anakin, were very fun to watch, those seem to be one of the only redeeming values of those movies.
Might have gotten off topic there for a bit...I'll just go and pull my soapbox to the side, yes? *Whistles as he walks away*