Dark is a point of view ...

Rating: 7/10 (24 May 2005)

Like many friends of mine I left the theater feeling sorry for Darth Vader. I also felt that he was an idiot to not see through the chancellor's plot to control him (I think the chancellor really did plant nightmares in the mind of Anakin Skywalker but this was not explored on screen.) The story line is much better than the first two episodes but one grows tired of seeing a Jedi Knight lose his light saber for the 67th time in a single movie. Can't he use a wrist-strap to keep it handy ??? While this movie does an excellent job of binding the story of episodes 1 and 2 to 4,5,6, it will also change and devalue the way you feel when you watch 4,5,6, forever. The respect for Yoda and Obiwan will be gone, and the fear and hate for Vader will be diminished, replaced by pity and sadness.
The movie many times ventures into disturbing realms, especially with lines like "evil is just a different point of view", genocide of children in a temple, and just basically one comes out of the theater thinking that nobody in that film is entirely right or entirely wrong. The sense of wonder and the black and white distinction of good and evil in 4,5,6 has been lost forever with episode 3.
This movie repudiates many of the themes in STAR WARS 4,5,6. In many ways this movie is like Clint Eastwoods "Unforgiven" which repudiates the entire industry of making western films.
Once again, Princess Padme fails to get the audience to fall in love with her (this is not surprising, her screen time was probably cut just to keep her from dragging down the movie's overall appeal.) 7 stars out of 10.