No and no, for different reasons.
internet is 50/50 on the primary villain being awesome and "eh, LOOK VADER"
But the hype train is real, I want to see this movie more now.
I get that it is darker than previous films, TFA was also. EVERYTHING is darker than ep1-3.. sheesh that shit was so cgi glossy stupidness the damn children's TV shows are darker than it.
Question for pondering and just general interwebs discussion...
Based on R1 and TFA - would you want to see E4-6 and or E1-3 remade?
Original trilogy? Absolutely not, leave it how it is.
Ep 1-3? Yes but with some heavy heavy modifications --
1) Get rid of everything involving Anakin as a child. Needs to start with him being recruited as a potential Jedi in his mid teens, or just fast forward to him in his 20's as a padawan.
2) Focus much more heavily on the Clone Wars and feature Obi-Wan and Anakin trekking across the galaxy doing stuff for the second half of the first film and all of the second. Let Mace Windu be their commander as they travel around, gotta keep the angry black Jedi around plus a reason to see the clone troopers in action. I've never seen the Clone Wars show but I imagine it pretty well covers what I want.
3) Episode 3 needs to be mostly focused on Palpatine and his rise to power in a less faggy way that doesn't involve gungans (in my universe they don't exist!) with a little bit thrown in there with Anakin meeting Padme and hooking up. Could still have the bit where Palps lures Anakin to his side with promises of methods to protect his newfound love or whatever. Palpatine is a master at coercion I'm sure he can figure something out. The important part is that he gets her pregnant. Toward the end of the movie needs to be Order 66 but this time Anakin is in on it and assumes the troopers will take down Obi-Wan during one of their excursions -- they fail. Cue fight between the two of them after Obi-Wan becomes suspicious when Anakin was not targeted at all, Obi-Wan wins fight and takes off to go into hiding. Same thing with Yoda, he was on the council so he's a character that can still be featured here and there. May as well give the little green fucker a few moments of glory before he also goes off to hide on Dagobah. Reworks to the original ending of episode 3 -- Palpatine still shows up to gather Anakin's broken body and so begins the Darth Vader suit construction. Palpatine lies to Anakin about Padme and tells him she died. Make up some shit about the Jedi killing her or something, not important. However she made it out just fine (thanks Jimmy Smits!) but still dies due to complications during Luke/Leia's birth to keep the continuity there. Last shot of them on the bridge of the Executor overseeing the construction of the Death Star was pretty cool, I'll allow it to stay.
I doubt all of this "its dark!" its a "star WARS, WAR film"
people need to die, a lot to be a dark and gritty war movie, not just bad guys - good guys, people surrounding and including the main cast need to be slaughtered and killed of in meaningful ways (sometimes not meaningful to hammer in the point)
I really doubt that is how R1 is, I hope so - and I will love to go see it and I am sure I will enjoy it, but I still think it will be a starwars movie, and a good one at that, but not a saving private ryan / black hawk down in space.
Edit: if it is, I will be happy to eat my words with a smile of contentment. I will be happy to know that they can tell a different kind of story, along with more of the same story that we all want in the primary films.