In no way, shape or form worth staying up 'til 3am for.

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2005)

It's worth seeing, but don't go to any extraordinary lengths to do so.
Let me get straight to the point. This film was no better than Attack of the Clones. I have to question the sanity of anyone who has said this is the best one since Empire and there's nothing to question for those who've said it was the best of the series.
Hayden Christenson still cannot emote anything more than a generally perturbed condition. Natalie Portman, who I admire, even seems to have been asleep for most of the shooting. The dialogue was absolutely horrible in spots, the low point of which was the fully-costumed Darth Vader shaking his cybernetic arms and screaming "Nooooooooooooo!" in his grief. I'm sorry, is this Star Wars or Days of Our Lives? There was some clunky dialogue in the originals too, but nothing to that degree. I was also completely unconvinced by Anakin's switch to the Dark side; there was very little hesitation for someone to turn his back on the people who'd rescued him from servitude and been his family for several years.
Basically, this is 2 1/4 hours of some pretty spiffy CGI and Yoda kicking some serious butt. Episodes 1, 2, and 3 are interesting for filling in the back story for the originals (when they're not contradicting them), but none are in the same league. If any of the three had been issued as a stand-alone original, there'd probably have never been another one made, let alone five.