Far from perfect but easily the best of the prequel-trilogy

Rating: 6/10 (27 July 2007)

Just like "The Empire Strikes Back", this movie scores heavily simply for being the darkest one in its trilogy. Here's a film that contains some of those "legendary" scenes that SW-geeks like myself have been imagining since the early 80s. The Mustafar-duel, Anakin's and Obi-Wan's final moment together and, of course, the transformation into Darth Vader. Those are absolute key moments of the SW-saga and it's obvious that the creators of "Revenge" put a lot of effort into them. Looking at "Sith" (and the other two prequels) one can't help but wonder however, if the back-story to IV, V, VI needed filming at all.
Sadly enough, part 3 suffers from the same weaknesses as the other two prequels: Wooden acting, tremendous over-use of obvious CG-environments and some of the worst dialog ever put on film. The opening crawl alone makes one wonder how Lucas can crank out some of his lines without everyone around him flinching ("Evil is everywhere!").
The story plays out in front of mostly computer-generated sets that do look breathtaking but at the same time you just *know* in the back of your head that they come from a computer. In short: Pretty much every location looks highly artificial. To me, this kills a lot of suspension of disbelief. One of the strongest points of the original trilogy was, in my opinion, the "lived in"/"used" and thus somewhat believable look of the world, something that the new trilogy lacks almost completely.
There are lots of high points however. The opening space-battle for instance is simply awesome. There's so much going on and so many vessels involved that you really have to watch it on a big screen to take it all in.
Like in EP I and II, the casting is a mixed bag. Some actors are very good or almost perfect in their parts (Ian McDiarmid, Sam Jackson, Ewan McGregor) while others are just painful to watch. Hayden Christensen is better than in "Clones" (which doesn't really say a lot) but he still looks more like a whining, misguided kid than a deeply troubled man who's about to sell his soul to the devil. I'm not even saying that it's entirely his fault .. the script he has to work with here is full of incredibly bad lines, still: a better actor certainly would have done a better job with the character of Anakin.
Speaking of the script: The transformation/seduction of Anakin seems rushed and just doesn't ring true (at least if you're older than, say, 12 years). I don't care in what century or galaxy you live: People just don't behave like this. Dialogue about "my new POWERS!" reminded me of similar bad exchanges from cheap Saturday-morning cartoons like "Masters of the Universe".
Other scenes of that caliber include the death of Dooku ("hmm.. err .. I really shouldn't ...") or Anakin's exchange with Padme about him wanting "more POWER" ... ouch! And then there's the final transformation of Anakin of course which, again, is a mixed bag. Stunning visuals and incredible sound design should make this a memorable scene, but Lucas manages to spoil it with a few lines of dialog, ending with Vader delivering his now-infamous scream of "NOOOOOOOOOOO!". James Earl Jones must've chuckled to himself when he had to deliver that line.
The sad thing is: As with most bad dialog in this movie, I just *know* that with a bit more polishing, tweaking and more careful directing, most of these scenes could have been a lot better. And this is what really bothers me about this film. Taken for what it is, "Sith" is a solid, entertaining piece of sci-fi, but it lacks that final "magic touch" to be a Star Wars-film. Too bad Lucas seems to concentrate too much on visuals and effects (as proved by his constant, unnecessary tinkering with the original trilogy) and doesn't pay enough attention to the actual performances of his actors.
But then again, the Star Wars-badge is the one thing that saves the entire prequel trilogy. Without the Star Wars-logo/back-story any of the three (especially EP I) would've quickly been forgotten and wouldn't nearly have had the success that they did.
6/10