Why I hated this movie...

Rating: 2/10 (1 June 2005)

I went into this movie only wanting two things: 1. To witness the emergence of Darth Vader. 2. To see the showdown between Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I came out of this movie feeling substantially cheated.
This movie has all the subtlety of a sixth-grade school play. Episode 3 should have been the masterpiece, the crown jewel in the Star Wars crown, but instead it falls into the category of "filler", simply setting the foundation for the otherwise fantastic original films.
Lucas had what most films sorely need  a great story to tell. He had the golden opportunity to dive into how Anakin Skywalker transforms into Darth Vader. A real writer would have savored this chance to deal with deep emotional character development, but Lucas simply hits you over the head with monochromatic dialogue like "I'm so confused", and "The council doesn't trust me". There was the chance to have real character relationships between Anakin and Padme and Obi-Wan, between Anakin and Yoda and Mace Windu, between Anakin and Palpatine  these are the forces that drive Anakin to the Dark Side of the force - but Lucas barely scratches the surface of these vital and decisive elements within the story.
You can tell right away that Lucas is more interested in glib details (like showing the Millennium Falcon coming into a landing in the city-world) than any real substance that made the original films so great.
I wanted to see Anakin seduced by Palpatine. I wanted to see tensions rising between Obi-Wan and his increasingly uncontrollable apprentice. I wanted to see the Jedi Council unknowingly fostering Anakin's sense of alienation and separatism by treating him like a child. I wanted to see Anakin and Padme fighting to keep their forbidden relationship a secret. I wanted to see Padme's conflict of having Anakin's child(ren). I wanted to see more internal conflict and character interaction that would have made this story powerful and appealing.
I wanted a story.
What did I get? Blunt dialog, superficial character treatment and more time spent on meaningless action scenes than on story substance.
Here's an example: Anakin states to Padme, "I'm so confused." It seems like Lucas says, okay, we've established that Anakin's confused. Let's move on to the next light saber duel.
How about another: Anakin has just killed Mace Windu and screams "What have I done?". Palpatine basically tells Anakin to turn to the Dark Side and become his apprentice, and Anakin says 'duh-ok'. No seduction. No internal conflict. No palpable reason to flip-flop and change sides, but again Lucas seems to say, okay now he's good... now he's bad. On to the next light saber duel.
Speaking of which, I never thought I would get bored watching a light saber duel. I guess since there are about half a dozen in Episode 3 alone, I've become desensitized. The last time I was excited by one was in The Phantom Menace, where the awesome Darth Maul put on quite the show. That fight sequence exposed totally new dimensions to the typical swordfighting that prevailed in the other films, and was repeated ad nauseum in Episode 3. Why did Lucas kill off an incredible villain like Maul only to replace him with Christopher Lee as the idiotic Count Dooku? Argh! I would have preferred he kept Maul alive until Episode 3 and have Anakin finish him as a warm-up for Obi-Wan.
Oh, Lost Opportunity! Lucas had a ripe, rich peach just begging to be picked, but he opted instead to harvest the unripe one right next to it because it may have looked a little better. So many concepts come to mind that could support the conversion of Anakin to Darth Vader that went essentially untouched or worse, barely addressed.
Also (and I just realized this myself), has anyone bothered to note that Episodes 1, 2, and 3 totally spoil the earth-shattering effect of The Empire Strikes Back, where Vader reveals that he is Luke's father? Lucas has blown the continuity of this storyline BIG TIME. Couldn't he have at least pretended that Episodes 1,2,3 were made before the original films? Visually he tries, but again, Lucas's writing skills are not up to the task.
I'm so disappointed that a revolutionary filmmaker like George Lucas could do so little with so much. He's a great concept man, but falls short when it comes time to produce subtlety and substance in his stories. Layout the plot outline, and let real writers handle the task of writing, George, while you do what you do best  create the visually stunning canvas on which the tale is painted.
That's my word.