well...what did you expect?

Rating: 1/10 (17 May 2005)

Well, after having my hopes dashed for another groundbreaking trilogy by episodes I and II, I really wasn't expecting all that much from III and for once, I wasn't disappointed. I can accept that Lucas made these for "a new generation", but I can't help but feel .... an addition of open contempt for the "old generation" while watching them. Quite frankly, George Lucas is a lousy director and storyteller.
While real actors like Ewan MacGregor and uh....Ewan MacGregor do their best with the material given to them, most of the heavy scenes involve Hayden Christiansen, who is to good acting what a pile of kindling is to good acting. He's terrible. In one or two scenes he brings it up to bad, but for the most part....the stink made my eyes water. I am unfamiliar with the acting of Ian McDiarmid, and after watching his inane scenery chewing performance, i can understand why. Maybe under the supervision of a talented seasoned director the performances could have been salvaged, but Lucas is at the wheel and...nuff said.
Sure, there's visual effects galore, and if anything is gonna appeal to the new viewers, it's gonna have to be that. It sure won't be the plot. Once more Lucas proves he's a Tell not Show director and we're treated with exposition laden speeches the likes of which haven't been seen since the opening of Uwe Boll's Alone in the Dark. (Incidentally, I don't know who's better, Lucas or Boll) I think back to the clean, sleek storyline of episodes IV-VI and then to the jarring trainwreck of trade federations, droid armies, and racist alien stereotypes that comprise eps I-III and it boggles my mind that they could have come from the same person. Not that they did...maybe the original authors are buried out in the same vault where the original prints were stored.
Did this flick even need to be made? Nothing I saw in this new trilogy fired my imagination the way the casual mention (e.g. a Clone War) did in a New Hope. The genesis of Darth Vader was one hundred times more engrossing when caught second hand from Alec Guiness and Frank Oz's hand up a puppet's butt. Does anyone want to see what Dorothy did the previous three months in Kansas before she went to Oz? Well, all negativity aside, I think the next one, episode IV, is gonna be GREAT.