Better than 1 and 2, a decent bridge to the first trilogy

Rating: 7/10 (10 February 2006)

I saw this film on opening day, and have now watched it several times on DVD. I have also read a lot of reviews, both good and bad, and now feel compelled to voice my thoughts.
I am a big Star Wars fan (not that I would dress up at a convention or debate the realistic nature of the lightsaber). I went nuts over the Phantom Menace came out, but then I learned what a good movie really is (Sorry George, PM and AOTC were bad.)
People keep saying that Ewan Mcgregor was great in this film. Personally, I think he and Natalie Portman were lacking, Portman leaning towards camp. Some of Hayden Christensen's delivery was tolerable, at least more tolerable than Episode II. Ian McDermid was the stand-out here. But c'mon, let's look at this realistically: they all did the best they could with what they had. The dialogue was still pretty bad (I do however think that the narrative was decent, again, compared with 1 and 2.)
The music is the truly inspiring aspect of the film. I believe John Williams has only now reached his peak, I find, especially with scores like Harry Potter 3 and Memoirs of a Geisha. The music here is excellent, breathtaking, beautiful (the massacre at the temple is my favorite piece).
All in all, I think there was enough good here to outweigh the bad. The effects were still stunning, the action intense (the editing of the action sequences is still great, no matter what else goes wrong), The music was great, MacDermid was excellent, and it was just really good to hear James Earl Jones again (and trash all that crap about "Frankenstein" Vader; he was adjusting to the new suit!) Look past the plot holes. Just enjoy it for what it is!