Parts better than the whole

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2005)

The beginning battle and fights scenes are good. But the first third of the film up until the first act turning point is weak and closer to Episode II or I. After that when Anakin begins to 'turn' it starts to get good. However, the stronger tragic parts (where I actually felt some swelling of real emotion for the first time in these new episodes) are let down by the weaker parts. Plus, the ending doesn't feel conclusive enough - the film just ends. Empire manages to avoid this problem by building up to the conclusion better but still leaving just enough pieces hanging and unanswered questions (such as is Darth Vader 'really' Luke's father? and how will they rescue Han Solo and the love story turn out?).
POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!
I guess the main problem is here is we already know all the rest. If Lucas was a better writer he could have utilized the elements of Greek tragedy better, rather than make Darth Vader's last cry so cartoonish: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! But most of all, the contradictions of these new installments just gets too much to enable them to be integrated with the older ones without having to dramatically cut out bits in one or the other trilogies. First the force is more spiritual - 'zen' like, then it's biological things in our blood. The stormtroopers have normal accents, and then we're supposed to believe their all clones with Maori voices (Not to mention Bobba Fett!). Plus the messages are a tad preachy and didactic in these films compared to the others, regarding tyranny versus democracy. Plus Darth Sidious could have had a much better argument - perhaps a rhetorical speech rather than - LETS BE AN EMPIRE! REPLY: YEAH!!
There are others problems..with Chewie and C-3P0 and R2D2 and the problem of trying to tie bits together that don't work, but the most standout one is: In Return of the Jedi Luke asks Leia are in the Ewok village, and Luke asks her if she remembers her mother, her 'real mother'. Yes she does, she remembers little things about, that 'she was very kind and very sad'. With the tragic turn of events at the end of Revenge of the Sith it is not possible for Leia to have this memory. Rationalise it anyway you want to, but the fact is Lucas may have created Star Wars, but that doesn't mean if he chooses to change the originals by changing their past that overall things will be necessarily better. I prefer the original installments, and believe that without Episodes I through III, they are better films.