Boring Excessive Special Effects + Weak Story = BIG LETDOWN

Rating: 2/10 (3 September 2005)

As real STAR WARS fans, we never see STAR WARS movies anywhere except at Washington, DC's wonderful UPTOWN THEATRE --- our city's last big stand-alone theater with its huge curved screen and $20,000 stereo. That's where we saw the first STAR WARS 9 times, and every subsequent STAR WARS film since. The first 3 films all would rate 10 out 0f 10 for me, and after 20 years when Phantom Menace came out I'd rate that one at 8 or 9. Then the series bottomed out with the utterly useless Episode II wherein we were supposed to believe that Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman were "in love" --- perhaps the hottest couple since ICE AGE they were so flat as lovers they exceeded even Natalie Wood and Richard Beemer in West Side Story in the indifference department. The one redeeming quality of SITH was it wasn't as pointless and stupid as Episode II. George Lucas can be declared useless as a film director now that he's stated he needs to juice-up his special effects. Good grief, George, what this movie needed was a storyline and character development, and the kind of camaraderie that made the first three films great. Special effects, like alcohol, can be overdone. Boo, hiss!