Back to form for George Lucas

Rating: 10/10 (19 May 2005)

It's a huge improvement over the previous two films. I doubt there'll be a single person who sees them who doesn't agree with that statement. I also doubt that very many people will rate it higher than Empire Strikes Back. ESB remains the best in the series, IMO. Likely the most disagreement will arise from whether or not it's better than Return of the Jedi. I thought it was. Quite a bit better, in fact. My wife, however, thought it wasn't quite as good, although she likes ROTJ a lot more than I do. I rate ANH a little bit higher than ROTS, but not by too much. The majority of ROTS is every bit as good as anything in ANH, but although both movies have their flaws, ROTS has quite a few more of them, I think. But I'll get to that later. Let me start by talking about what I loved. But be warned that there are some major *SPOILERS* ahead.
In many ways, I think that this was the most artful Star Wars movie, even moreso than Empire Strikes Back. There were moments of absolute beauty and brilliance that surpass anything I've seen in Star Wars so far. There were some ingenious parallels drawn and some great intercutting. One of my favorite scenes was the intercutting between Padme giving birth to the twins and Anakin being put into the Vader outfit. Brilliant move. And I loved the obvious parallel between Anakin saving Palpatine from Mace Windu and choosing the dark side and his decision in ROTJ to save Luke from an eerily similar fate at the hands of Palpatine himself. Little touches like this suggest to me that maybe Lucas has put more thought into this story than it sometimes seems.
But the biggest question I found myself asking after the movie is how was Lucas able to get this so right, while he got the other prequels so wrong? He showed that he is ABLE to get the actors to deliver their dialog properly if he wants to. He showed that he is able to direct action scenes with emotional intensity along with physical intensity. I just wonder why it wasn't until the third film that Lucas decided this was important. Was it because of the tragic nature of this film? Did the critical success of LOTR inspire him to try harder? Did he sit and watch the original trilogy over and over and somehow get in touch with what made them so great?
It's just amazing how much more this film feels like the OT. Like I said in a previous post, the delivery of the dialog is so much better than the previous two. In TPM the actors sounded bored. In AOTC they at least tried to inject more emotion, but something was still off. MOST of the dialog in ROTS is well timed and well acted. There is finally real warmth between Anakin and Obi-Wan, and the pain that Obi-Wan feels from Anakin's fall can really be felt. Some of the dialog in the Anakin and Padme scenes is a little reminiscent of AOTC, but it is delivered with much more conviction and I really felt that they loved each other... something that AOTC sorely lacked.
The action scenes also felt more OT. The opening 25 minutes or so was wonderful. The space battle and the rescue of the Chancellor was not only exciting but it also had the space cowboy kind of feel that the OT had. The humor was done much better, both in script and in delivery. There were a few moments of silliness, reminiscent of TPM, but there was also plenty of humorous dialog between Anakin and Obi-Wan (particluarly from Obi-Wan throughout the movie). Loved the sequence with R2 and the elevator! Of the lightsaber duels, my favorite was definitely the Anakin and Obi-Wan duel, followed closely by Yoda and Palpatine (I loved that they were intercut!). In both of these fights there was real urgency and passion. As I said above, they had an emotional intensity that the other prequel lightsaber duels lacked, but that the OT duels possessed. However these duels also had an element of melancholy to them that make them both my favorite of the whole saga.
Okay, enough positives. Now for some negatives. I really didn't like General Grievous at all. He had a lot of potential to be a great character, if George had just played him straight. Instead, he was in it half for cheap laughs and he was just too silly to take as a real threat. I was glad when Obi-Wan killed him just because it meant he was out of the movie. There were also moments of TPM humor that made me cringe, particularly some of the voices in the first half of the movie. There were also occasional lines of clunking dialog and some poorly delivered lines, although this is a hallmark of the series as a whole, and there are nowhere near as many as in the last two films. Most weren't at vital moments, though... although unfortunately Vader's first lines made me cringe, especially the NOOOOOOOO!
Overall, Lucas thankfully did a great job on this final, most important, film of the prequels. It's not flawless, it's not a masterpiece, but it manages to recapture much of the magic that made us fall in love the the original trilogy, and even transcends the other films at times. Be warned, though. You won't leave this film feeling "good." I felt quite down afterward. It's depressing. But the film does end with a note of hope that doesn't leave all in darkness. And it leads perfectly into A New Hope.