Faineant

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2005)

In this day of over-hyped, over-marketed, media blitzing campaigns for movie debuts, it is often challenging to discern what will prove to be a worthwhile watch.
Episode III is a disappointment. Poor dialog, over-acting, static plot line, and entirely too much emphasis on one persons downward spiral towards evil. I'll clarify each of these issues in a moment, but first the positive. Separating Sith from previous episodes, it can easily stand alone as a great, exciting, action-packed sci-fi flick. It has excellent imagery, great effects, and strong action sequences. I am sure I will watch it again, and enjoy it more.
Now, for the bad. Poor dialog was strewn through-out the film with cliché' phrases, and deliberately too serious verbage. In the prequels, cheesy dialog exists, but is much more off the cuff, blending well with the style of action and characters. Over-acting... c'mon! We get it already, Padme and Anakin are in love. But can you really believe they have anything remotely resembling a relationship? They act more like two completely dysfunctional twelve-year olds, than two married adults about to have kids. Static Plot Line... this one's my favorite. As I mentioned earlier, Sith could stand well on its own as a great movie. What gets me though, is how terribly crucial each person plays to the plot development. As a child of the prequels, one of the things I loved was that no matter how much focus was placed on Luke or Han's success, they were just a piece of the pie. The movies would be interspersed with great action sequences, with some dialog and character development in between, but then would pan out to reveal that what was occurring was just a microcosm of the larger picture. Luke, Han, Leia were not the rebel alliance. They were a small piece of it. Fastforward (or rewind I s'pose) to Sith, and you find there is no real big picture. The entire plot development surrounds Anakin's descent, leading me to the next thing. How many of us have had friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. that were troubled since birth? Everyone knows a person like this. They are fundamentally sound, seem like good people, but inherently have some constant knack for doing the wrong thing, maybe even for the right reasons. Why should Anakin be any different? Sure he's gifted. Sure he grew up with little parenting, and was somewhat down on his luck. Sure he had nightmares that his wife might die. Whoop-de-freakin-do! Those things don't separate him from anyone else. Instead, the emphasis should have been placed on developing how natural and easy the path was for Anakin to turn, since it is part of HUMAN NATURE.
Anyway, thanks for reading my rant... Perhaps I'll be a tad less critical on the second go around.