Revenge of the Mind-numbing Invetability

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2005)

Well the summary says it all... it's everything you expect it to be. It ties up all the loose ends for the fan-boys (although I'm sure they'll spend hours finding some loose ends to find and discuss on some internet forum somewhere). Keeping the die-hard fans happy seems to be the motivation behind the movie, although I think that's an impossible task seeing as people have spent decades fantasizing over what the first 3 episodes should have shown, and are bound to be let down to some extent.
There was one constant thought on my mind throughout the entire film: How THICK are you Annakin? How many signs do you need before it finally clicks "oh wait a minute, are you the Sith lord?" It was a tough job making this film, what, after all, could seduce Annakin to the dark side, the thirst for power was not enough... The saving Padme thing was the best Lucas could come up with, probably the best anyone could come up with really, but it was still weak. As if Annakin would go to the bother of killing all those Jedi, especially the children, just to save his wife's life. It's a bit hard to swallow, but as I said, there's not much else Lucas could have done given 2 hours to twist Annakin over.
One thing I did have an issue with (besides Jimmy Smits) was the cuteness of the whole thing. Adding cute little touches in disturbing scenes to try to lighten it up a bit, it just ruined the scenes. As if seeing little droids flying around is going to ease the sight of someone's legs getting chopped off... A particularly dim view of child psychology there.
Everything that the Star Wars: A lost hope spoof video said came true with only one or two exceptions. Even Annakin touching Padme with the robot arm happened, which made me laugh out loud.
All in all, not a great movie, but under the circumstances it was well made. 6 out of 10.