The Best of the Prequels

Rating: 9/10 (14 August 2010)

It's not perfect, but it's a really good film. By the time this movie was released, Star Wars fans were so divided that it was hard to get a level headed review out of anyone. When I initially reviewed this, I gave it a perfect 10. This film does not deserve a perfect 10, but you have to understand, I had just come off from seeing it and was so excited that I had overlooked the flaws and only reported the things I loved about this movie.
And there is plenty to love. This is the prequel we had all been waiting for. It is the movie that depicts the fall of Anakin Skywalker as he succumbs to the Dark Side. Long time fans of Star Wars had speculated the details of the plot for 25 years before this film was even released, but now we were actually going to see it. Could it possibly live up to our own theories and speculation?
For many, it didn't. A lot of Star Wars fans would have preferred a more gradual decline to the dark side, one that took place across all three films, and one that showed him hunting down and destroying the Jedi over a longer period of time. This is how many fans pictured it in their heads. But Lucas had messed things up by starting episode I with Anakin as a little kid. Now he only had one more film to show his transformation to Darth Varder. How was Lucas going to do this in one movie?
The simple answer is that he didn't. Anakin's fall was actually, in many ways, anti-climactic, as was the destruction of the Jedi. This further divided the already divided fans, with many crying foul and calling this the final nail in the Star Wars coffin. And while I sympathize with their frustration, I found this unexpected final twist to be quite compelling.
Anakin's fall was more of an emotional one. He did not gradually become the unstoppable battle hardened monster after years of fighting in the Clone Wars. He was a troubled, sensitive, fearful, and somewhat whiny young man who simply was afraid to lose the people and things he loved. And in his desperate attempt to hold on, he lost everything. Anakin weeps, he whines, he moans. Yes, he is a powerful Jedi, he is a great warrior, he is brave on the battlefield. But he is also a pathetic man, a fearful man. He is unable to let go. He is emotionally weak. And this is what leads him to the Dark Side. This is what brings about his downfall.
Also interesting is the downfall of the Jedi Order itself. The Jedi Order is as much to blame for their downfall as Anakin is. They had grown complacent, arrogant, and insensitive to the needs of the more troubled members of their order, like Anakin. They had the opportunity to save Anakin's mother in the ten years after bringing him into their order, yet they did nothing. Their rules on forbidding attachment are also questionable, and may have led to more problems than it was meant to prevent.
All of these themes were compelling and helped deepen and enrich the story. There were many great emotional moments in this movie that almost brought me to tears. And, of course, the action, visuals, and score are top notch and truly Star Wars in quality. This is, by far, the best of the prequels, and it almost lives up to the quality of the original trilogy.
Still there are some flaws that I cannot look passed. The biggest is the dialog. While some of it is good, there are a lot of really awkward and downright bad lines in this movie. Star Wars was never known for its great dialog, but it was rarely as embarrassing as some of the lines in this movie. Often, a good actor can make a bad line sound good. Alec Guinness and Harrison Ford could pull this off in the old movies, but, unfortunately, Hayden Christenson and Natalie Portman are not their equals. I do have to say, though, that Ewan McGreggor was excellent in his portrayal of young Obi Wan Kenobi, and he was probably the only one of the protagonists that could make bad lines sound good. And then you had veterans like Ian McDiarmid and Christopher Lee, who always pull off a great performance. McDiarmid in particular was great in this in his role as Chancellor Palpatine.
This is the most action heavy Star Wars movie ever made, and it gets exhausting. There's a lightsaber dual on a Volcanic planet near then end that goes on for five minutes too long and loses the audience at certain times. A lot of the cgi seems superfluous, and it detaches the audience from the action. Unfortunately a lot of action movies have since had the same problem and it's a trend that I hope will reverse itself soon. Mindless action that goes on for twenty minutes does not make a film more exciting.
This is also the darkest of the Star Wars movies, which is not a bad thing. I'm glad that Lucas wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty and even allowed this film to get a PG-13 rating, the only Star Wars movie to have such a rating. There are some very violent scenes in this movie, and it's not recommended that young children see this. Wait until they're 11 or 12. Kids will love this movie regardless though.
Overall, this is a great movie that has its flaws, but is definitely worth seeing. The flaws do kind of stick out the more you see it, but I actually don't mind re-watching it as much as I do the other two prequels. It still doesn't quite hold up as well as the originals, but then, very few movies do.