a must see - even if you don't like it

Rating: 9/10 (25 June 2005)

This movie tends to have audience reactions that are either very good or very bad, as does any movie that brings with it hype and high public attention. My personal response? I loved it! The negative reviews I hear about the movie are usually centered around "bad dialog" or "bad acting" or "too much special effects". Obviously Star Wars isn't the type of movie that is made with winning an Oscar in mind. It simply isn't that type of movie. It is a world of its own, a very particular world. It therefore cannot be compared to other movies. All Star Wars movies at times lack in dialog and acting and have lots of special effects. That's what they do. So negative comments made about these things are simply repetitive and not useful.
As for good things about the movie, it has a very serious human drama tone to it that puts human emotion and even politics in space. The stakes are high and decisions have to be made, in this case by Anakin. Because most people know what happens in this movie based on where the story leads it from the other films, you're able to just sit back and watch it happen.
Ewen McGregor plays Obi-Wan so convincingly that when you watch A New Hope again the transition is believable to where you realize that no one else could've played young Obi-Wan. Hayden Christensen performs as Anakin in a way that shows a tender person who is forced to be hardened by his situation. Ian McDarmand steals the show as Emperor Palpatine. He is over-the-top evil, the way we've come to expect from Return of the Jedi. He poses the most awesome threat to all that is good in such a way that whenever he is on screen you want to watch his every move, simply because he is pure evil. Natalie Portman convincingly reveals her character, Amidala, domesticated by her pregnancy and deeply disturbed by Anakin's twist toward the dark side. The two main battle sequences of the film are gravitating.
Yoda vs. Emperor Palpatine and Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader. Finally you can see the two most polar characters clash when Yoda steps into Palpatine's office and they duke it out for the first (and last) time. Normally we know that any fight Yoda is in he will emerge the victor - c'mon, it's Yoda! But when we see that Yoda is greatly threatened when fighting Palpatine we realize that something very big is happening. As far as Obi-Wan and Darth Vader - the most breath taking fight sequence I've ever seen. This fight spans several different battle grounds as the two continue to fight for quite a while. Then finally when Vader is beaten you can take a breath, only to cringe when he is set on fire and you can see the agony in his face. Toward the end of the movie I actually heard people behind me in the theater sobbing.
Again, as with any extreme movie, reviews will either be really good or really bad. I think that the people who give a bad review are just bitter because the movie didn't turn out like they wanted it and fail to see the good stuff that it offers because of that. In a way........ they've been blinded by the dark side!