Good, but not great...

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2005)

After just seeing it 25 minutes ago, I was actually left feeling kind of cold. This is similar to how I felt after seeing Ep's I and II. Ep III is by far the most action packed of the series, was visually beautiful, but it just missed the mark. I am an unabashed fan of Star Wars, but at the same time not a raid fan-boy type either. I have seen the entire series in the theater, being fortunate enough to have seen the original 27 times in its initial run. This isn't to bash the prequels as a lot find fashionable, but they just don't stack up to the originals. The dialog in the last two movies (II and III) in particular is painful to endure at time. Did Lucas "save Star Wars"? That's truly a loaded question, and from my perspective, it was a nice attempt, but...
There was a lot of anticipation in the crowd (theater about 3/4 full), and lots of hoots, hollering and applause during the 20th Century Fox fanfare, but as the closing credits rolled, only about 5 or 6 people applauded, and the "buzz" was mixed walking out. You'll see a lot of "best movie ever" posts and some "totally overrated" ones too..somewhere in the middle, the truth lies. I'll wait for Magnoliafan's version. :-)