Exactly what we expected

Rating: 5/10 (20 May 2005)

George Lucas' third prequel to the Saga of Star Wars proved to be no different than the preceding prequels, Episodes 1 and 2. The script was poorly written and the acting (aside from Ewan McGregor) begged for help. You can only compare soap opera star Hayden Chritiansen's mumblings to Chris O'Donnel and maybe Keifer Sutherland. The quintessential Jedi Knight is still viewed by most people as Alec Guiness, with his British accent and his distinguished parables. So why did Lucas decide that it's okay for Christiansen to blend words together and say "gotta, kinda, hafta," and my favorite, "a whole nother?" Since when was "nother" a word? Granted, Aniken Skywalker is supposed to be an angry teenager in episode 2, but one would hope he'd have come of age grammatically by episode 3. Unfortunately, the internal conflict that everyone knows is supposed to tear him to the dark side in more or less ridiculous and his love for Padme is nothing more than a word in the script; Nor does Nathalie Portman contribute much believability to the relationship that is supposed to be the epitome of love in the early galaxy.
Furthermore, someone on the script team decided that every line Yoda says needs to be inverted. In the original trilogy, his speech is different, but still in fairly normal English. He says "take you to him I will." But here in episode 3, every line for about 5 minutes is in that style of inversion. It is too much and is almost comedic.
Although the points of writing and acting lack greatly, Lucas delivers where we can always expect. The action would have been great and the effects would have been stunning, if it was the first time we'd all seen them. Every audience member has seen the matrix, where the fighting is more impressive, and has seen large explosions. The oos and ahhs that may have accompanied the earlier movies' light-saber duels were not present in the completely packed movie theaters.
As soon as things really get going, the movie is salvaged somewhat. The use of coexisting story lines, similar to the way "Return of the Jedi" ends, adds a great deal of suspense to the movie. And episode 4 is set up very well and many plot gaps are filled.
George Lucas succeeded in one thing, showing us all how much we truly appreciate the original trilogy. George, Let Li movies have better fighting, and Star Trek has better sci-fi. The only thing you had to go on was the cult nature of "Star Wars." Well, that's what we all wanted: "Star Wars," and now, I want my money back.