Mediocre

Rating: 1/10 (22 May 2005)

This film was laughable. I mean this literally...I spent a LOT of it film laughing in places I really shouldn't have been.
The Plot: Generally the plot of the film is well put together. The loose ends are all tied up, the ideas are solid and reasonably well executed. I did get the feeling I was missing out having not seen the Clone Wars cartoons (turns out I wasn't really having just sat through them at a friend's) but nothing too major.
The Script: Just...oh dear. I mean really if this was the best Lucas could do then I'm disappointed. Weak script that was, in places, actually laughable. HOWEVER, some of it he did get right. The conversations between Anakin/Vader and Palpatine/Sidious are done well, as is Obi-Wan's climactic battle with Anakin. However, generally, this film has some of the weakest lines I've heard in a motion picture in recent years.
The Acting: Just...oh dear. It's poor, weak, and not helped by the script. The only ones who seem to be trying are MacDiarmid (sp?) as Palpatine and MacGregor as Obi-Wan, and even MacGregor has problems when he's acting with no-one there.
CGI: Over-used. Well done, but over-used. The computer effects are magical...but they take up so much of the film you end up feeling like Lucas would have been better off cutting out the plot all together, filming a giant space-battle, and then putting in Episode III.5 (or V...whichever you prefer). Gone are the awe-inspiring yet simplistic X-Wing and light-sabre battles and instead we see a gargantuan space-battle that, in all fairness, we have no hope of comprehending without pausing the film. Most of the Jedi Temple and the environments are CGIed to hell.
Basically the film does what it sets out to do: it brings the 6 films together in a story that makes a lot of sense and is, in many respects, well told. But as a MOVIE it lacks seriously in the departments of acting and script. I went to see this movie as a fan, but came out a critic. That shouldn't happen. However, I know many who have enjoyed it...so people out there disagree with me.