I know everything about Star Wars, and I was totally confused.

Rating: 3/10 (19 May 2005)

OK, first off, Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor were fantastic. They did a splendid job of having vulnerability and strength and created an interesting subtext to the full. Just about everything else totally sucked BIG.
I'm a huge Star Wars fan. I'd give the OT ratings from 7 to 10, the prequels 4 to 6, somewhere around there. However, I think Revenge of the Sith is one of the worst blockbusters I've ever seen. This isn't simply because of bad acting or poorly constructed scenes, or even unintentionally funny moments. It's because this movie was so obviously going to be about tying Episode II into Episode IV, and SHOULD have done more, but it didn't.
Having lightsaber battles on lava and in halls is fine, but guess what, I can picture all of that in my head, and make it more interesting. Why would I watch something so uninspired on a screen if I can basically picture how it would turn out in my head? It doesn't make sense. If I wanted to try and figure out Anakin turns to the dark side, I can pretty much picture it in my head, so why does Lucas add absolutely no dressing to this salad to try and make it interesting? What happened to the excitement of getting there, of seeing HOW it will happen, rather than WHAT will happen. We all know it's going to happen, so why not play with us, trick us into second-guessing, make us think there's hope for something better, leverage the inevitability for dramatic use. Basically, why not do anything other than make it totally obvious and boring.
If you know that Anakin is going to turn to the dark side (which everyone does know), then all the events in this movie are TOTALLY predictable. Now, in Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" we know from the very beginning that the bandits will attack, that villagers are gonna get samurai to defend themselves, etc. What Kurosawa does is make you try and guess HOW it will happen, he sometimes makes you think it won't happen, he makes it all come down to human condition and behavior, and little choices that create big consequences.
Lucas totally fails in this aspect. Think about this question: What does Anakin give up by going to the dark side? Padme? She's doomed to die, isn't she, so that doesn't count. Kenobi's friendship? It's rocky at best, and it's not totally over even when Kenobi comes down to the lava planet, so that's not directly connected to turning to the dark side. The point is, ANAKING LOSES NOTHING DRAMATICALLY BY TURNING TO THE DARK SIDE, which means this story is freaking boring. If there are no stakes, what's the point? In fact, going to the dark side seems to be a good choice for Anakin since he's trying to keep Padme alive, and the Jedi are starting to act like jerks anyways. He makes a good point in the climax by saying that he could overthrow Palpatine. Why is that supposed to be a bad decision? It sounds pretty good to me. After all, he's not fully turned to the dark side, so after he saves Padme from death, and with Yoda and Kenobi and Padme's help, he could be turned back to the light side. So why not give this idea some hope in the plot? It doesn't even seem to have occurred to Lucas, and it's a bad sign when a 20 year old hispanic kid with pizza stains on his jacket is out-storying a 50+ year old billionaire.