Good, but "Empire" is winner and still champion

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2005)

Most of the criticism I've read of this movie so far concerns dialog and acting. Granted, it's not the best I've ever seen. But it isn't the worst either. Okay, I squirmed in my seat through all of Anakin and Padme's "I love you", "only because I love you so much," and so on. Knock it off and get down to some saber fights. But being perfectly honest, how many of us haven't talked that way to our own significant others? If more of us did, our divorce rates wouldn't be quite so high.
So onto the acting. Ewan MacGregor definitely IS wooden enough to make a nice piece of furniture out of, in some scenes at least. So is Samuel Jackson. So is Hayden Christiansen. So is Natalie Portman. So is Christopher Lee. So is Ian ... I think you get the point. But again being honest, are we really judging a Star Wars film on the basis of acting? Get over it and break out the light-sabers.
No. This movie's true weakness stems from the flaws in the previous two movies. Lucas spent so much time on pod races, bounty hunter chases and other unnecessary filler in Eps I and II that by the time the story of Anakin Skywalker finally gets down to business, A lot has to happen in a relatively short period of time. The result is that Revenge of the Sith is a terribly rushed movie. Having read Matthew Stover's brilliant novelization, I can say that the chink in the armor in Revenge is what we're NOT told about Anakin's fall. Yes, we're told that Anakin is tormented by nightmares of losing Padme during childbirth. But this movie fails to convey Anakin's fears of failure and abandonment as much as it needs to in order to make his fall to the dark side thoroughly convincing. Furthermore, the movie's treatment of the convoluted political situation existing between the Jedi Council, Palpatine and a contingent of senators opposed to his rule (of which Padme is a leader) and Anakin's being caught in the middle of it all is superficial compared to the book, and again, not enough to contribute convincingly to his ultimate demise. Believe it or not, this intrigue and the strain it puts on Anakin is actually more engaging than the action sequences, and the movie really drops the ball when it comes to portraying it.
Then there is the scene in the jedi temple. It's almost like Lucas is trying to make up for corny and childish novelties such as gungans and ewoks by including such a grim and disturbing scene as what takes place there. We were told in ep 4 that he "helped the empire hunt down and destroy the jedi", not slaughter helpless children. I would much rather have seen the fallen Anakin take on some trained jedi. Again the novelization, and even the video game do better: he takes on the jedi's sword master and a few other masters we saw in ep II. Not here. Instead, what we are left with is a scene that is both unnecesarily brutal and fails to demonstrate Vader's power as adequately as it could have.
But hey, enough complaining! This movie is pure eye candy; dropping us into a huge space battle and awesome light-saber sequences right off the bat. Combat sequences involving Emperor Palpatine (Darth Sidious) are truly frightening. The scene depicting the fall of the Jedi was so elegant in its melancholy that it brought tears to my eyes. At the film's end, we are treated to synchronized sequences depicting Luke and Leia's birth just as Vader's armor is assembled; grooming us for the rivalry that defined classic science fiction for a generation. But would it have been too much to ask to actually see a bit more of "Franken-Vader" before the end, especially in a light-saber sequence? Rating: 8 out of 10.