The best of the new bunch

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2005)

As with the previous two Star Wars, Episode III isn't as different as Lucas says it is. Sure, it's dark, but you know, it still has the same problem that Episode II does, and that's Hayden Christensen. If you didn't think that much of his mediocre acting in II, you won't mind that much here. But for those of us who see Star Wars in a different (non hardcore) way, and also enjoy movies that don't have Tie Fighters, the dry mouthed twenty something's whine will make you sad, and yet when he's got a shut mouth and staring into the camera with dark eyes, I was happy, especially by the time the suit was involved. Less lines for him would have been great, but understandably impossible. It kind of all depended on what his lines were and who he was on the screen with. Sometimes he was alright, when being talked to like a young child that he was acting like, not the next chosen one guy. For him, less would have been more, but that's just me. Thank god for Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan, which for the longest time has been shutting him up with the right words to make me feel just a bit better.
I've read somewhere that Lucas' ability to work with actors was not.. very good, and you know I think that's false, which is purely based on this: Actors with a history are good in this film. Samuel Jackson, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor (Especially. His Obi-Wan is the best part about all three films. He doesn't make his corny lines terrible, and composes himself fantastically while holding everyone else on the screen with him in a different light. He resonates, while the others try to shine.), and even a CGI Yoda shows better form than some of the lines that are more dry and boring than previous films.
I will say this though: After making it through the first hour and a half of too much story to pack into one movie (there are so many things that have to do with the Republic and how things... Go - I don't want to spoil anything- that just kind of get easy answers, that it seems as if all of this happened in one really long, fast day. There was never the sense that this whole thing could go in the amount of time it takes to deliver healthy children), the setup for the ending and the last hour of the film is vintage, good Lucas, and almost perfect setup for a final ending. I still feel kind of odd about the fact that I was actually sad to see the fight scene. "It's all led up to this", I could hear myself saying. And really, it has. It took more than twenty years to finish this being for one man, that's taken most of us in our heads to another place, and though there was a real bumpy road to get there, it's END was impressive enough for me to give it at least one thumb up.