You can't HELP but be disappointed.

Rating: 7/10 (29 May 2014)

I want to start off by saying that this is a GOOD movie. It's good, but it's not nearly as good as it could have/should have been.
I'm a bit of a Star Wars nut so I have the detriment of being a little TOO critical of the prequels. That being said, I've also become a tad more realistic over the years of what to expect from the movies. After giving it a few years to simmer over, I've come to respect this movie a bit more.
I'll start with the negative and work my way to the positive aspects.
In 2014, this movie already looks reeeeeeally dated. If you have a true HD television, this movie looks like a joke. The reason? About 97.532% of it was shot on blue screens. According to Hayden Christensen, only a few scenes were shot on actual sets. Disappointing, but not really surprising. I realize more can be done with blue screens, but if it doesn't look good, what's the point? Too much time spent on the space battle in the beginning. The previous movies have established that Anakin is a great pilot so in my opinion we should have dropped straight into Anakin and Kenobi fighting Dooku. That's just my opinion though. I would have rather had that running time added to more mystery solving by the Jedi Council or the Sith, etc. Which brings me to my next point...
The Jedi Council/mystique of the Jedi Order isn't shown nearly enough in this movie. The original movies gave us a taste of the Force, so it was safe to assume that the prequels would tell us all we needed to know. WRONG. Other than cutting to Mace Windu and Yoda saying "I feel a disturbance in the force," and showing one or two meetings of the Jedi council. I feel some more screen time should have been devoted to this. The characters of Mace Windu and Yoda could have been used far more effectively.
Another issue I had was Padme Amidala's role in the series, particularly THIS movie. She was not used effectively. Truth is that she is a very wise politician who is skilled with a blaster.. This movie reduces her to the "wife" of Anakin who just seems to passively take everything that comes her way. She was feisty; that's where Leia got it from! I would have liked to have seen this movie utilize Natalie Portman's skill set a bit better and perhaps give her some better dialogue...which brings me to my next point, the script. Ugh.
Not that the dialogue was perfect in the original trilogy, but this stuff was painfully bad. Lines like "You were the chosen one," "Only I can help you save the one's you love," and "He killed younglings..." The actors were good, but you couldn't help but laugh at how awful the dialogue was. The Emperor as well as General Grievous easily had the best lines of the movie. The dialogue felt wooden and matter of fact. There was none of the charisma that the originals or even "Phantom Menace" had.
Now for the good aspects of the film...
The light saber play was excellent...From the initial clash with Dooku to the final climactic duel between Anakin and Obi Wan, the choreography is just fantastic. You can feel the pain, emotion, and hate from Anakin as he takes on his old master. The Kenobi-Grievous duel was ehhhh...the big stupid motorized wheel kinda ruined it for me, but other than that the fight scenes were fantastic! The Emperor. Enough said... JK. Ian McDiarmid's portrayal of Palpatine is easily the best performance of the movie. You really feel the sociopathic evil that Palpatine is known for in his cold portrayal of the emperor. The line, "It's treason..." is probably one of my favorite lines in the movie. It's delivered so well! That being said, I wish that perhaps Anakin had a brief duel with Palpatine so that he could see "the true power of the darkside." "Revenge of the Sith," is definitely a good movie and an acceptable version of the story, but I feel that this movie (in about ten years) would benefit from a re boot and I am not a huge fan of re boots. Depending on the success of Star Wars: Episode 7, it just may happen. I think a rewrite of the "Revenge of the Sith," script could really make it a GREAT movie. It had potential to be up there with the best of them.
The movie would definitely benefit from a sleeker look. By that I mean using REAL sets, but infused with the latest special effects. An excellent script would really benefit this movie as well. I know all of this is easier SAID than done, but I think this is the way to go.