Pull the curtains away from your eyes

Rating: 5/10 (2 March 2006)

Contrary to popular belief, Lucas has not redeemed himself. Episode 3 reminds me of Elvis Presley's comeback in the 1970s. People were just so happy that he was back making decent music that they praised it as brilliance. They said he was back to his old form. When in fact, they were in serious denial. The same is true here. Yes, EP 3 is a step up from the last two star wars movies... but it's still not a good movie! I'm not trying to change your opinion of it, everyone's entitled to like it if they so desire. But what follows is my take on the film.
Firstly, the acting and dialogue is still laughable. Francis Ford Coppola's dialogue coach has done nothing to help pathetic and corny lines. ie. "I hate you!", "Love can't save you. Only my new powers can." - that had me laughing a good five minutes after Anakin said it. Sam Jackson getting attacked by lightening was pretty funny.
My biggest problem with the movie is the fact that it could've been better than Empire. There are so many things in this movie that aren't developed. It's like George did one draft and said "ok, that's good enough". The whole Clone General and Obi-Wan relationship was never developed, so when he turns on Kenobi nobody cares. There could've been great drama there. There are also a bunch of holes, which I assume are from a lack of script development. Yoda is clearly winning, well he does have the upper hand, during the Sidious fight. Yet, he takes a small fall and flees. Then because of that he completely gives up, says all is lost and goes and hides on a planet for 20 years? I don't buy it. Also, the wiping of 3P0'S memory was such a last minute idea "oh yeah, gotta do that, lets just give a line to organa... he hasn't talked yet, has he?" Padme coming up with the names of the twins was pretty random and her dying of a broken heart was dumber than dumb. Oh, let's not forget when Anakin is totally against Palpatine one minute (when he finds out who he is) and then the next is bowing down before him and aiding in the death of Windu. The jedi massacres were done terribly. These people are supposed to be jedi... they're supposed to see things before they happen, have a heightened sense of awareness, amazing fight skills, powers etc... and they are easily taken out like flies. The worst, and most hilarious, was the Palpatine shuffle when Windu attempts to arrest him. Palpatine easily takes out 3 of the top council jedis by poking them. The jedi didn't do a thing... they just stood there and got poked by a lightsaber.
Though this movie does have its problems, and there are many, it does do a few things right. The special effects are inconsistent. When they're good, they're great. But when they're bad, they look really choppy and goofy. For example, Dooku's flip at the beginning. I don't know who you're fooling George by just sticking Dooku's face on a cgi figure. The "Apocolypse Now" homage with Padme and Anakin looking out the windows over the sunset was quite nice. And the opening was kind of funny with R2, but the problem with that kind of comedy is it has no lasting appeal.
John Williams score was definitely lacking I felt. No real coherent themes. Everything was just so mish mashed and erratic that it wasn't really music to my ears. Padme was also terribly out of character. It's like as soon as she got pregnant she became a pushover. I can go into more, but I don't want to get into nitpicking. Those are some examples of why I feel this movie was bad. All I can say is that after I finished watching it I was saying "Noooooooooooooooooooo"