Even Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett couldn't save this one...

Rating: 5/10 (26 May 2005)

For those Star Wars fans who don't know who Lawrence Kasdan and Leigh Brackett are, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Lawrence Kasdan was the screenplay writer who helped edit out most of Lucas's God awful dialog and Leigh Brackett, was the one who wrote the original screenplay Empire Strikes Back. Maybe they deserve more credit for making Star Wars the success that it is because, without them the franchise just sucks.
Okay, so how about this movie? Well it had it's moments, especially when it came to the fight scenes. Yoda vs. Sith. Good. Obi-Wan vs Anakin. Good. How about General Greivous and Obi-Wan? Also good. The fight scenes are very well choreographed and saved the movie from being a terrible mess.
If it's one thing that really ruined the whole movie it was the non-existent character development of Anakin Skywalker. It is here that Geroge Lucas tries to transform the pansy into the dark lord that we should all be afraid of. Lucas throws around plenty of "motivation". His wife is going to die; he is denied the rank of master; he must spy on his beloved mentor Palpatine and so forth. It just feels so rushed and delivered with no emotion whatsoever.
"How dare they deny me the rank of master!" shouts Anakin. Apparently this is enough to become evil and suspicious of the Jedi. "The Jedi are power hungry" says Palpatine. Then "I must destroy them". Then he lops of Mace Windu's arm and cries "Oh no, what have I done?" He is traumatized for about...3 seconds and then vows eternal loyalty to Lord Sith. And all to save his wife. Apparently they are the perfect couple because they both deliver the same cheesy unemotional lines to each other. As one reviewer put it, they lust for each other, there is no genuine love.
Also, it's hard to feel sympathy for Anakin who doesn't exhaust all his options before turning to the dark side. How about taking her to a doctor and watch every attempt to save her life fail before seeking the dark master. No! How about showing a little emotion after killing 50 kids with your light saber? No! All the Jedi's seem to be little pansies after being wiped out so easily.
And the worst of all is having Padme die at the end of the movie. Despite being 100% healthy. She just lost the will to live because good IL' George just needed to get rid of her before the story ended. And what about the stupid idiotic lines of Anakin as the modern Dath Vader. It looked like it was ripped from Frankenstein.
Overall, the action scenes and the special effects made this movie watchable. I wouldn't mind seeing more of them so long as the characters don't say anything.