"Dark movie" is not equal to "Good movie"

Rating: 5/10 (20 March 2011)

So ends the disappointing "Prequel Trilogy" of Star Wars. The first movie was lamely disappointing, the second was just lame, and then we got the third one, the first Star Wars rated PG-13: there goes the excuse of "these movies are for children". But this movie was acclaimed by many fans, who said "the first two were awful, but this one is good!", "Lucas had two strikes, now he made a Homerun", etc. I only have one explanation for comments such as these: "Low-expectation syndrome". After being exposed as a mediocre director and writer for his last movies, in the Revenge of the Sith, no one were expecting cinematic gold from Lucas anymore (except die hard fan-boys). So, a mediocre film with writing as sloppy as common with Lucas during the last ten years, but with some "dark twists" (spoilers!), such as killing children (oops, younglings, sorry), killing Samuel L. Jackson, and a guy horribly burned and mutilated by his "best friend", was a bit refreshing after all the "kid-friendly" stuff of the previous movies. I was impressed the first time I saw the movie, but it got old really fast.
Again, Lucas is haunted by his own words: "Special Effects without a good story is just boring". The movie delivers yet again unimpressive effects which Lucas still thinks they'll make us scream "wow!" at the cinema... Lucas, please get it: special effects aren't impressive anymore. The acting is mediocre, but that's not so much the actors to blame, but the lazy writing ("you are so... beautiful", yeah, that's gold). The story is an incoherent mess with boring dialog and pointless side-plots, rushed up to put Anakin in the Darth Vader suit at the end.
I don't like to nitpick on "plot holes" but I'll comment in this one: So, Anakin is having dreams of his wife being killed by pregnancy, and then he's duped into the Dark Side by Palpatine... how, you ask?, he just tells him a vague story of some guy who "defeated death" once... that's so lazy, that I can only think in two explanations: a) Anakin is just stupid. b) Anakin was always a bad guy, and all the "Padme dying stuff" was just an excuse. The tragedy of his fall evaporates at once.
I must address, though, that this movie is superior to its predecessors by two simple points. First: at least, we feel that something is on stake here. Second: the plot, lazy as it is, at least is more defined than in the last movies.
So, the prequels have been finished at last. Now, we can all forget these mediocre and boring movies, pretend they never existed, and return to watch the Original Trilogy, which probably will endure more than the Prequel Trilogy, for a simple reason: good stories + good effects = good films. Lazy stories + good effects = boring films.
5/10