End of the prequel disaster...

Rating: 4/10 (31 May 2005)

*Spoilers ahead* For me this film was confirmation that the prequels should never have been made (well...not by George Lucas) I entered the cinema with low expectations after Lucas' first two disastrous efforts and really just watched it for completion's sake.
The obscene use of CGI effects was as expected and although impressive to begin with, soon became gratuitous and repetitive as the screen was just a constant flurry of activity. The only let-ups happened when there were cuts to (yet again!)boring conversations between Jedi, Palpatine-Anakin, Anakin-Padme, which badly interrupted the flow and pace of the film. Lucas - you just don't learn...unbelievable.
Lucas doesn't let the viewer use their imagination at all and had to show everything possible including a childbirth scene and Anakin being mutilated and burnt alive (a disturbing scene for a Starwars film). Yes, this film is darker then the others, but takes itself way too seriously for this genre of movie.
The dialogue between Palpatine and Anakin was excruciatingly pedestrian and just awful. Wookies were thrown in just for the hell of it - they did very little and Chewbacca's big moment was saying goodbye to Yoda as he made his way into "exile" - (with the music from "Yoda's Theme" playing in the background) pathetic George, really pathetic. The word "youngling" was used by Obi-Wan to refer to young Jedi - embarrassing and a disgrace that this didn't end up on the cutting floor.
Midiclorians cropped up again, just like aliens talking cartoonish English, the Viceroy (who were finally butchered - a rare highlight of the film), oh and the droids(R2 and 3po) were to have their memory's wiped -how convenient George -to tie up that gaping plot hole from the originals ...when the droids shouldn't have been in these prequels to begin with. And why was Palpatine made to look like a vampire from the 1987 film- The Lost Boys?
General Grevious was the new bad guy in town, although quite entertaining (apart from that silly coughing?!)- I don't think he belonged in a StarWars film. Now imagine if Darth Maul hadn't been killed off in the first, this would have been the chance for a long awaited climactic duel-to-the-death rematch with Obi-Wan. This lack of focus and development of a principal villain throughout has hurt these prequels. Obi-Wan v Maul, OW v Jango, OW v Dooku and now OW v Grevious -result: no one really cared because we didn't get to know any of the bad guys. Lucas should have stuck with Maul and fleshed out his character, then Obi-Wan finally killing him off in EpIII would have a brought cheers in the cinema and some positive feeling about something!!
Yoda by now had become an irritating know-it-all, blurting out the usual confusing one-liners. Anakin turns to the dark side far too easily and when we finally see him as Vader his first utterance is something like "Where's Padme?" - hilarious- comical rubbish and sacrilege -George. Thankfully its all over - pretend they don't exist next time you watch the originals -although that will be very hard now.