Best of the Prequels by Far

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2005)

A definite improvement on Ep I & II. Only time will tell if it should be grouped with Ep IV - VI in terms of quality.
Storywise, it is richer. It gives us info on character backgrounds that matter (the emperor), thereby making the story have more weight. I was hanging on Palpatine's every word thinking "Wow, finally some depth to this character." This was absent in Ep I & II (we should have gotten more history on the Jedi, more time should have been given to the council and why we should care for them, why we should mourn their deaths in this movie, etc.). My problems with Ep I & II were that they were written for an audience that already saw EP IV-VI, yet was written for kids who were probably to young to have seen them, and to top it off, was written as a mystery we already know the answer to. Thank God Chewbacca only made a cameo, and wasn't forced into the storyline (like Boba Fett/Jango Fett or c3po being built by Anakin) just because he was old enough to be there (Although being one of the Wookies to save Yoda is borderline cuckoo).
The acting was more emotional than before. It drew you in to the characters situation. My favorite scene was definitely Windu's encounter with the emperor. Kudos to Samuel Jackson for injecting life to Mace (better late than never). I was blown away by this scene (no pun intended) and it didn't require thousands of cgi robots or spaceships.
The editing was a bit harsh at times. I felt abrupt cuts at times, most notably after the ship crashes on Coruscant. The music should've given us a sense of closure and lead to the next scene, but it didn't happen. Having said that, John William's score is more carefully integrated with the images overall, and it really shines this time. The sound was alright, have to wait for the DVD to really analyze this part though!
Finally, VADER. I thought the way he "wakes up" was a bit to frankenstein-ish (First frees one leg then the other, a couple of steps, then "Noooo!"). And rising from a table? Wouldn't a cryogenic tube with smoke coming out and then slowly emerging from darkness have been more effective? This is what I was really waiting for, and I'm sorry if I sound nit picky. I kinda wanted this scene to pack more punch. But overall, Christensen did a good job this time around in the acting department.
As a prequel trilogy, I think it lacks the emotional grip of the original. We should have cared about Anakin, Padme, and Obi as we did of Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewie, with the droids as an emotional link between them. Having Anikin be a boy in the first movie stole time from the bonding of his character with the others (and I guess with the audience as well). ROTS does not make EP I & II better (in fact, I now almost think EP I was a waste! It should have been the light before the dark, but not in the childish comedic way it turned out to be, and I think episode II suffers because of it) but it does leave you feeling GEORGE LUCAS did a good job overall. (Also, more should have been done with the clone wars... Argh! Enough!) In closing, I really enjoyed the film. Great way to end the saga. Thank You, Mr. Lucas.