That was my biggest problem with the prequels and sequels. A lot of older movies are slower paced and focus on characterization. Rocky, Jaws, some of the best movies are great because they focus on who the people are and how they act and react to what happens. Star Wars, an adventure movie, is pretty actiony, but seems slow-paced by today's standards. It's not really slow-paced, it just seems that way compared to movies made today.
An Evening with Kevin Smith has a story which illustrates this really well. He was offered the opportunity to write Superman Lives, Jon Peters was pegged to direct, he tells this story amazingly well and I highly recommend everyone to watch it (or hell, watch the whole Evening, it's fantastic. The man can tell a story like you wouldn't believe), but the short version is he turns in a quick and dirty draft of about 70 pages, mostly dialogue. Peters says they need an action scene every ten pages.
You don't need an action scene every ten pages. That's ridiculous, but that's what some people expect these days, and unfortunately those people are in charge of making the dang movies.