A Lot of Missed Chances

Rating: 6/10 (24 May 2005)

This is a nicely dark movie after the blandness of the first two, but I thought there were a lot of ways it could have been improved.
1) The legendary Christopher Lee is tragically underused, being killed off within 10 minutes of the movie. I realized that it was necessary to the plot for Anakin to replace Count Dooku, but the character could have been kept around for at least the first half of the movie. With the mostly stale acting, Lee's strong presence could have greatly helped.
2) General Grievous is nicely built up as a villain, but his final demise seems anti-climactic.
3) You got James Earl Jones, give him some REAL DIALOGUE! Considering the hype of this movie is completely built around the return of Darth Vader (in essence, Jones), his whiny lines are a letdown.
4) The movie is too long. Not a lot of stuff is expendable, but that which was should definitely have been taken out.
The good did outweigh the bad, but this could have been a real classic rather than just an interesting continuation.