Good plot, bad acting...

Rating: 8/10 (11 April 2006)

Overall I liked. I think the story was one of the best, with the end of the war and Anakin's identity crisis/romance with Padme. However, I must say, the acting was terrible compared to the rest of the movies. The dialogue was cheesy, and Hayden Christensen was stiff as a board throughout. Then there's the matter of "special effects". They may have been amazing in the earlier movies, when they were used somewhat in moderation, but when you put them in EVERY FRICKIN' SCENE, they're not "special" anymore. Take it easy with the computers, I say.
Aside from the acting and "special" effects, the action sequences were great. The duel on Mustafar really stood out in my mind, and I think it lived up to the expectations of most StarWars geeks like me.
Some main points were also left underdeveloped while some were stretched to the point of overkill. The romance story, although vital to the overall plot and outcome of the movie, just got old after so many cut scenes of Anakin and Padme.
The Jedi aspect of the story was not elaborated on as much as it needed to be. The Temple Raid sequence was just awful. Not only was it too short and indescriptive, but it portrayed Vader as a wuss. We only see him as he is about to kill Younglings, and aside from a holo that Obi Wan sees later, we never get to see Vader fight a bona fide Jedi who could actually stand a chance. It seems that Lucas missed several opportunities for great action scenes. Also, the Order 66 thing was a blatant cheez-off of "The Godfather" assassination montage (as noted in MAD Magazine).
The main line of the plot filled in a lot of empty spaces as far as the correlation with the original trilogy, and that is one of the many redeeming qualities of this movie. All in all, it was better than Episodes I/II, but can't lift a finger to IV-VI.