Impressive, but painfully flawed (spoilers!)

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2005)

(This review contains (potential) spoilers for all six Star Wars movies, so beware!)
Well, here we are, *finally*: Episode III has hit silver screens all across the globe and now the saga is complete (or _is_ it?)
The prequel trilogy had the opportunity to deal with a number of unanswered questions arising from Episodes IV through VI, not the least of which was how did kindly Anakin Skywalker turn into Darth Vader, one of the most (in)famous movie villains of all time?
But was this question answered convincingly? Although it is extremely believable that Anakin would not be able to bear the loss of another loved one (after losing his mother at a fairly young age and in a dreadful way), is it not a bit easy to surrender to evil on its say-so that it can help him prevent his dreadful vision from becoming true? Because that is what it all comes down to in the end: Anakin wants to save Padmé, so he saves the Chancellor from summary execution by Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), becomes a Sith Lord and helps to eradicate the weaker, younger Jedi (and the remaining Separatist Leaders as well, for good measure). And he loses his remaining limbs by foolishly charging Obi-Wan on higher ground And all this because of some visions that might not even have become true had he remained on his path?
To me, that is all too simple and unsatisfying after all that careful build-up in Episodes I and II. The scene in which Anakin gives in to Palpatine doesn't ring true at all, and I have to wonder if the actors involved have not tried to get Lucas to rewrite this into something palatable. One moment Anakin is saying that it would be un-Jedi-like to execute the Sith Chancellor, and almost the next moment he is agreeing to become a Sith Lord himself and slaughter the young Jedi That is hardly believable (not to mention rather gullible for his age, since those visions may well have been another trick courtesy of Dart Sideous), but it also makes him an almost irredeemable character. I'm not at all sure that I'll be able to look at the climax of Return of the Jedi in the same way, knowing that Vader murdered all those weaker young Jedi. I also doubt that Kenobi and Yoda would have cared to stand beside him as glowing spirits at the end of 'Return of the Jedi', given these crimes of his. Forgiveness only goes so far, I'm afraid.
All-round, this movie has much more action (in *space* too, as becomes a movie with the words Star Wars in the title!), more excitement, better acting and more seamlessly believable CGI than the previous installment. Not to mention that it has a subtitle significantly less cringe worthy than 'Attack of the Clones', which still sounds as a better title for a Star Wars spoof movie along the lines of 'Space Balls'.
Now that it is all over we can all ask ourselves: is this really the kind of back-story that is believable given what we had already seen in Episodes IV through VI? My response would be: not entirely, in no small part because:

what is Vader's motivation for continuing as an Imperial stooge after losing Padmé and (so he is made to believe by Padmé's full belly at her funeral) his child? Wouldn't it have been more logical for him to kill himself or immediately attack the Emperor after having caused such a tragedy? Had he known of his child/children's survival, this might have been a reason for him to go on and look for them, but as it was presented here?

at the end of Episode III, Yoda and Obi-Wan oversee the hiding of twin babies Luke and Leia. So why would Obi-Wan need to point out to Yoda that "there is another" during Episode V (or VI)? Wasn't Yoda very well aware of that fact himself?

during Episodes I-III there are far too many fights between clones, robots and Jedi, but too little is shown of the "thousands of star systems" that comprise the Republic. This makes the conflict seem a little unreal: exactly who are these people/aliens who all these battles are being fought for?

the fact that the Senate so easily succumbs to Palpatine's assertions of Jedi betrayal and his insistence that he become Emperor means that something was fairly rotten in the Galactic Republic to begin with. Even if the Jedi had won, that would have been a deep-rooted problem that required looking into. And I'm afraid that it would have taken more to solve it than some swooshing of light-sabers to solve. Fighting for democracy is one thing, but it must really *want* to exist as well

All in all this movie could have been truly excellent, if a bit more subtlety and sophistication had been applied by the Chancellor when trying to turn Anakin and if Anakin's subsequent behavior had been more believable. (Killing children to save his loved one? I think not!) Nonetheless, I enjoyed this movie a great deal. And I must admit that it literally brought tears to my eyes on numerous occasions (and in a good way!) because the drama was so intense and filmed so effectively, accompanied by a great score. It was also good to see the Wookies and Chewbacca appear at the end (too bad so many of them were eradicated here). Perhaps a young Han Solo might have been worked in here somewhere as well, to complete the entire old 'cast'?
The bottom line: 8 out of 10.
(But what was that about Que-Gon having returned from the dead? Is that something for another movie or perhaps a video game? Maybe the whole story hasn't been told after all?)