Neutering Darth Vader

Rating: 1/10 (17 November 2005)

I am 25 and have loved the first Star Wars trilogy since preschool. They have actually grown on me over time. I gave the prequels a chance after seeing Episode I (seven times at the theater), which I liked for the most part. I thought it (the prequels) could still be pulled off appropriately and all was not lost. After I saw Episode 2, I was a little worried, but still had hope. For some reason I imagined that Revenge of the Sith would be awesome and I was in the theater at 12:01 a.m. opening "day" to see the movie.
Anakin portrayed by Hayden Christenson was absolutely horrible, here and in Episode 2. His character was very poorly developed on top of the bad acting. The back story between he and Padme was very poorly developed. Anakin's turn to the dark side was unbelievable. It happened far too quickly and given his supposed tenure as a Jedi, made NO sense no matter how you slice it. The Sith (Dooku, even General Grievous) were given virtually no back story. Unacceptable.
The friendship between Anakin and Obi-Wan was very poorly developed. The relationship of the Jedi with each other was very poorly developed. The fight scene with Anakin and Obi-Wan was completely over-the-top, due in part to the setting. Floating on droids over a a huge sea of lava. Sounds kind of cool on paper. It didn't play so well. Stupid.
The simultaneous birth of the twins and Vader in his suit was bad. The poor development of Padme's character had a lot to do with that. But also the Vader "Frakenstein" lurch off the table and the long "Nooooo!" was atrocious.
Palpatine suddenly declaring the Rupublic the First Galactic Empire, after recounting the "treachery" of the Jedi, was also very badly done. No explanation, completely illogical and unbelievable. That, along with this movie felt rushed. Time was given to areas such as long action scenes, that should have been given to character development. Same goes for Episode 2.
The relationships between the characters from the original trilogy (Luke, Leia, Han, etc) was done well. There was chemistry there. There was charisma in their interactions and their characters were developed in a discernible adventure.
None of that happened in Revenge of the Sith, or the prequels for that matter. This movie really made the previous two look even worse. There was such a blown opportunity with these prequels. The story should have been far better developed. The characters, especially Anakin and his relationship with Obi-Wan and the other Jedi should have been developed throughout Episode 2. Then it would have had more impact to see the Jedi characters killed. Also, there would be time in Revenge of the Sith to convincingly show Anakin's betrayal of the Jedi, and his subsequent participation in their being "hunted down", which never happened in the movie (only three or so Jedi Masters were shown briefly being shot by Clones).
Obi-Wan said of Anakin in Episode 4: "He was a cunning warrior, an amazing pilot, and a good friend." Was the pod race and his three very brief and silly scenes in the entire trilogy piloting in space supposed to show off that he's a good pilot? Not much development there. Anakin is not shown to be a cunning warrior. Just a super-bad, whiny acting job with a horrible script to make matters worse. He is actually portrayed as a moron who is weak and easily manipulated, but in a nonsensical, over the top Hollywood sort of way, all in the confines of a pathetic script. The portrayal of Anakin and Obi-Wan's friendship just really isn't done at all, in any of the movies. Just allusions to a friendship through silly scenes and bad lines.
I liked some things about it. I liked the special effects. I liked Obi-Wan portrayed by Ewan McGregor. I liked Palpatine. I did enjoy Yoda and Palpatine fighting (minus Yoda's dumb "and not short enough it was" line). I liked Yoda's advice to Anakin on attachment. I liked the ending scenes with Obi-Wan and Yoda conversing, and settling the twins on Alderaan and Tatooine. I liked that C-3PO wasn't reduced to saying things like "Oh, I've lost my head!" and "What a drag", when he's actually lost his head or is being dragged around. But the bad out-weighed the good by far, in Revenge of the Sith and the prequels as a whole. I'm through ever watching these again.
The originals are still the way to go if you want to watch Star Wars, and not be in pain. Forget... forget.... these movies never happened... yes... yes.. never... all a bad dream...