I believe that sometimes, use of the Force is somewhat...overkill. When you watch the Jedi in action, it seems that they are normally using the Force only when a victory is assured, such as when they fight battle droids. The only exception to that rule, correct me if I'm wrong, is Ani vs. Obi. Maybe they decided that to test themselves against worthy opponets, they would not use the Force?

At least in the game of Dungeons&Dragons, there is a thing called Spell Resistance. In it, a certain character, let us call him Jango in this case, is somewhat immune to Spells, or, in Star Wars terms, the Force. Maybe they are immune to the Force, or at least resistant?

Maybe they tried, but it just wasn't enough........after all, they were killed!

There is no good reason why the Jedi don't use the Force on Grievous and multiple other occasions. It is the same in both the movies and expanded universe novels. Here you have beings of almost unlimited power and yet they are hindering themselves with self-doubt. I just don't understand why Lucas would create superheroes that don't use their complete skill set.

You want the real reason why the Force is underused in the Star Wars films? It's because the Force, like a Stromtrooper blaster bolt that actually hits someone, is only used for a pivotal plot point.

you have to realize that to call upon the force it takes a certain amount of concentration and focus, even for annikin who was born part of the force. calling on it to elevate thier jumps antcipate an opponets move,or baster fire takes focus to much use of the force could be to much of a distraction. well thats what i think.

That's because the Force unlike the darkside is to be used strictly as defense and never for attack to attack someone leads to the darkside and the jedi code prohibits this. They are to defend and detain the assailant for a fair trial but not to kill them. Obi-Wan wanted to question Jango to find out what the plot was about. He also had no other choice except to shot and kill Greivous in the act of defense. Neither Greivous or Jango were weak minded so the force doesn't have that strong of a hold on the non weak minded and couldn't be reasoned with.

I didn't say influence them I said detain them or take awy their weapons using the force.