An insult to the great original Star Wars Trilogy.

Rating: 1/10 (3 June 2005)

This is a film that took three of the most beloved films of all time and sold their souls to CGI. The original Star Wars Trilogy were not labelled as the greatest films ever made because of Light Sabres, or Storm Troopers, or groundbreaking motion capture special effects, but because of the human side. The quality of the acting from Sir Alec Guinness, the chemistry between Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, the excellent dialogue that made every line a memorable quote and the context of faith and religion are what made them so everlasting. In this film Ewan McGregor's acting is surprisingly wooden for such a talented actor, Hayden Christensen has less chemistry with Natalie Portman than a 12 year old student's test tube, the dialogue is boring, the lines are cheesy and clichéd, there does not seem to be any actual emphasis on plot, it just being an excuse to glue one over-long action set piece to another, so the intrigue disappears fast and the themes and contexts are given a back seat to (admittedly impressive) CGI. It seems that George Lucas thought that what made a good film was as much soulless eye candy as possible.
Star wars was once a trailblazer in Science fiction and its originality gave most of the future Blockbusters the templates for their scenes, and what was originally Star Wars innovation became cliché at the hands of other films. Now it is Star Wars using the same plot lines we have seen over and over again, copying others and Episodes 1, 2 and 3 in a lazy attempt to seem interesting.
You do not need spectacle to create a good film you need drama and humanity both of which this film sorely lacks. In my opinion the best Light Sabre Fight of the series was the Showdown between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The fight didn't have any flipping or flopping or any fancy kung-fu, but it did have the enormous tension of the concept of the final fight between Master and Pupil. That made for a great scene, and the elements of drama are completely void from this movie. This is a cheap CGI fest that misses the point entirely.