Good bridge

Rating: 7/10 (28 May 2005)

Everybody p*sses and moans about the quality of acting in these prequel films. Hello people! Was there ever a WORSE actor to grace the screen than Mark Hamill?? "I'm Luke Skywalker, and I'm here to rescue you!" Hayden Christiansen would not be my choice to play Hamlet, and there are probably a lot of other young actors who could have more serviceably probed the depths of despair to which Anakin Skywalker falls, but he's certainly as good as Hamill was with a much more demanding role. I actually can see why Anakin would have grown disenchanted with the Jedi-they're portrayed as a snobby, elitist bunch of bureaucrats in all three films (the Sith really can't be any more annoying than these guys, they're like a bunch of IRS agents), not to mention incredibly WEAK-they all fall like dominoes the minute they are turned on. Where is all this incredible strength of the Force? What good is it if you can't count on it when the chips are down? The only Jedis really worth their mettle in this respect are Obi-Wan and Yoda. It serves them right that they all get wiped out. It's also hard to believe that emotional high-flying adventure seeker Obi-Wan Kenobi is transformed into the genteel, reclusive Ben Kenobi by the time A New Hope rolls around. Having said all that, I really enjoyed this film. It's of course visually appealing, and Anakin's manipulation from a desperate young man who wants to save his wife and his universe, who believes what he is doing is best for both, is quite powerful. Ian McDiarmid is the perfect Iago, the evil Sith Lord who really steals the show and gives a face and personality to the Emperor that we never saw in the original episodes. Without him, I don't think this film would have held my interest the way it did. Good movie, good bridge to the sequels. Star Wars is back.