Blasters

Has anyone noticed how lame Ep1 blasters are compared to the OT blasters?

In the OT, the blasts took pieces out of stormtroopers' chests in a shower of REAL sparks. In TPM, the blaster bolts go "TINK" when them hit, they scorch walls like someone's put a cigarette out on them, and you can only see the sparks produced for a couple of frames. Only the droidekas had serious weapons.
I think GL should go back to pyrotechnics for this effect, or is it an example of more powerful weaponry 34 years on?

Hadn't the Republic lived in an age of peace for a long time? Whereas, in the OT you had the clones wars not long passed and the Galaxy was a much more militaristic place anyway.

Naboo weaponry is unlikely to have been very agressive. Trade fed guns could have been nastier, but without armour on the guys being hit there is very little GL can do; you will note that we don't actually see many Naboo soliders go down.

Hmmm. Rebels didn't have armour though, and they still hit the deck with flames and smoke pouring from their bodies. You've got to agree about walls being hit, though.

We didn't see enough Naboo soldiers go down, in my opinion. The droids would have seemed so much nastier if they could gun down more soldiers. To me, they just seemed like dumb walking machines designed to miss targets and look impressive when cut with a lightsabre.
Please tell me that GL didn't cut down on the good-guy death for the kids' sakes, we'll not be in for very action packed Eps 2 & 3 if thats the case.

I think the Battle Droid blasters were quite similar to those of the Storm Troopers.