Ok, time for some good ol' EU bashing. :D
Yes, it was like... 'yeah, yeah, do whatever you want. Now where's my money?' Supposedly Lucas also had a hand in the creation of those horrid EU books in which Chewie is absurdly murdered. I don't think he would have either of these things in a movie.
Lame? No, no. Choking a poor admiral and frying some Jedi wannabe with lightning is not lame. It's reasonable. Draining thousands of beings from their life essence, having a Force cannon for an arm, and brainwashing Jedi in the blink of an eye, now that is lame.
Not quite. He did know that Ulic's attack would fail. He didn't seem to care at all, for he didn't prepare any contingency plans in the event of a more than likely republic counterstrike. Palpatine may have underestimated Vader's humanity, but Exar Kun was blind to say the least, or just dumb.
Enough bashing for now.