The best of a bad bunch, but just too contrived

Rating: 6/10 (23 May 2005)

OK, it's better than the woeful part 1 and the mind numbing part 2, but lets be honest that's not exactly hard! Visually stunning this film falls down in too many ways to be a classic. Firstly the dialog's, clunky, too many one liners delivered by actors who; either know they are too good for it (Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Samuel L Jackson) or would find it hard to act their way out of a paper bag (Hayden Christensen). Only Ian McDiarmid has any decent script to play with and he does it beautifully. Unfortunately he is playing opposite the wooden Christnesen for most of it!! Secondly, we all know what's going to happen, in part 4 so we know that Obi Wan, Yoda, Vader and the Emperor wont die, and just about everyone else will. There are no surprises and as a result very little tension in the second half of the film. My biggest problem with the film is the turning to the dark side of Anakin. It happens so fast, one minute he loves his wife the next he's butchering "Younglings" it really doesn't flow. I think this probably stems from the actors lack of visible talent. I was delighted when the mask finally goes on and we get the beautiful tones of James Earl Jones instead. So I give it a 6, mostly for the visuals, stunning fights and because Jar Jar isn't in it!! I still feel that the world would have been just as good a place with only the original 3 films, which were all so much better that this.