Weakest Film of The Entire Series

Rating: 5/10 (31 May 2005)

Long ago, in a Galaxy far away came a film which saved FOX studios from bankruptcy. It was conceived by a 16 year old George Lucas after he saw the 1959 film Ben Hur. This gave him the ideas which are now lynch pins of the entire series - an all powerful force, an evil empire, emperor, a purpose for our universe.
The problem with this film is that Lucas seems to have forgotten the story telling in this one and fell in love with the special effects. Granted there are some unique sets & great ideas like the clone army & the dark count (Christopher Lee) introduced. Anakin does marry his childhood love at the end of the film (though if the ages were advanced right she would be robbing the cradle).
Acting & story are the weakest here in the series. Other than the wedding, all the acting has been sucked out of this film. Did this part of Star Wars get outsourced to the special effects department?Below I describe some deleted scenes which if restored to the film would put some of the acting back. These are on the DVD of this film.
The battle sequence at the final part of the film, while visually something to see is much too long. If we lopped about 5 to 10 minutes of meaningless battle sequences off of this and use the most dramatic parts only, it would flow much better.
The early sequences with the assassin chase are visually appealing, but once again, if this chase had been shorter and some of the stunts less absurd, it would strengthen the film too. On the DVD version of this film, there are some cut sequences which if the action were shorter could be put back in and tell the story better.
There is a sequence cut where Padmay introduces Anakin to her family including her sister which would flesh out more of the romantic story. A couple of other sequences developing the romance could be put back in too. The effect of the film without these is that they seem to fall in love one afternoon in the grass near the falls with little other development, like strangers meeting in a bar. I would like more time than that to fall in love, this romance is much too labored and not real enough.
That is the main failing of this film, too many special effects sequences and too little story development. Humor is sadly lacking in this film compared to others in the series too.