Typical summer blockbuster, it is. Lacking detail, subtlety, performances and strong writing, it is. Impressed, I wasn't.

Rating: Null/10 (22 May 2005)

Star Wars was the film that pretty much created the blockbuster, tie-ins, merchandising, so it is no surprise to find that this one has all the strengths and weaknesses that we have come to associate with blockbusters. Specifically the issue that it is all noise and CGI without as much heart and good writing as would normally be required. Visually, this film will be a treat to those looking at the film on that level because it is like CGI overload  Lucas appears afraid to just have simple scenes so even personal moments in Padme's room have wide windows with constant movement behind them. On a technical it is impressive but it detracts from the story, which was what I went for, and it just ended up distracting and rather unnecessary. In the UK, one part of our terrorism laws prevents suspects using computers; at times I felt that perhaps the same measure should be taken against Lucas, to force him to focus on things other than effects.
If you are just looking for action to wash over you with lots of pretty colours then this should do you, for me though even the action scenes were pretty uninvolving. Last week I saw Ong Bak  which drew a real reaction from the audience; with Sith, the audience just sat back and tried to keep up with it. It had its moments but it was never gripping or exciting. Part of this may be down to the fact we all know what will happen (we may not know the detail but we already know the outcomes) but this should have been a strength of the film because the script could've done much more with the material  making it tragic, clever, insightful and moving. Sadly it doesn't do any of these particularly well even if it has a go at all of them in some ways.
Firstly, the story is not really developed past the very basic blocks that it skips over; hence Anakin's fall is rather obvious and lacking the complex inner turmoil that should have been there. In fact his turning is so simple and so easily explained that it almost makes Anakin look, well, gullible and weak willed rather than the imposing Vader we will know later. The script occasionally links to Bush's policy in Iraq but I think this was more by chance than anything else and as a result it doesn't really do anything clever or interesting with it other than just put it on the screen. Of course the basic story still works and it did enough to interest me and have a narrative that I cared about but saying "this happens, that happens and this happens" is not the same as writing a story with detail and intelligence  Lucas can only do the former. It was too late to address the character failings of the previous two films and the script can't  the characters are flat and my lack of emotional buy-in with them was a problem; of course my nostalgia helped to some degree but you can't ride on that alone. The biggest difference between the original (which was hardly Shakespeare after all) and this is fun. Everyone loves Han because he is great fun. Here everyone talks like they're delivering the most worth lines ever and it is rarely "fun"; it is dry where it needed to be lively and it is only one or two childish moments with R2D2 that drew small laughs from the audience.
This leaves his cast with a difficult task  delivering lines and characters that don't even work that well on paper. We seem to either have lots of action or the characters stand around explaining the story to the audience in long, overly-worthy speeches. Christensen is not awful, but with so little to work with he just comes off as rather wooden and simplistic; considering the strength and impact of Vader, the poor writing of his fall was surprising. Once inside his suit, Vader moves funnily like whoever was inside was overdoing things to compensate for the mask. McGregor can't do that much and just settles for doing his best Alex Guinness impression. Portman is shunted to one side and does OK with her few scenes, but the film can't spend too long on her so anything she might have been able to do is wasted. Jackson is at least cool  and thus manages to rise above his basic character and provide weight to his words. Ian McDiarmid produces such a wonderfully hammy performance that I expected him to reveal fangs and say "I vant to suck your blood"; he was great fun though. The rest of the cast are all in small roles without ever being important to the audience  it was nice to see Chewy, R2, C3P0 and others but this was not their film.
Overall, I forgave Clones because it had enough in it to just about stop me disliking it, but here I was not so forgiving  perhaps because I had higher hopes and saw it as being the most important part of the new films; just like Empire was the best of the original, this should have been an intense experience that had effects as the second reason for seeing it  not the first. As it is, people will flock to it and be overwhelmed with noise, movement and colour, and perhaps that will be enough with the building block story to satisfy the summer blockbuster audience who only go to the cinema once or twice a year. However many viewers will find the development to be basic; the performances dry; the CGI overused; the action noisy but yet strangely uninteresting. I didn't hate it (it didn't draw any strong emotions from me) but, considering the key role this film plays within the series, it fell well short of the mark.