a sad end

Rating: 5/10 (20 May 2005)

I enjoyed being immersed in the star wars universe by this film, but beyond that I was disappointed for a variety of reasons: This was the pinnacle of the tragedy of the 6 films save perhaps Darth Vader's death at the end of episode 6. The film had the biggest opportunity for powerful characters and acting, which we finally got in episode 2, but instead it hardly once got you to properly engage with them. This was because the dialogue wasn't great, the film tried to cram too much in instead of leaving some of the more predictable parts to the imagination. Unfortunately what emerged was an unbelievable story, which actually made me laugh at points where I wasn't supposed to, like where the Emperor is being 'evil' he just looks like an idiot, and where darth vader gets his suit on and breaths could have been more subtle. At some points I even thought I was watching a cartoon there was so much cgi, i.e. at the beginning, the whole scene had no impact it was just eye candy and terrible dialogue. I got the impression that Lucas either made too much for this film and had to cut it down and in so doing it lost its stand-alone essence, or he's had enough of it all. Or both.