I was embarrassed to be in the theater

Rating: 1/10 (25 May 2005)

I had really hoped and actually believed that this was going to be the best of the prequels, after all it was going to be the climax of the prequel trilogy and contain arguably the most dramatic event in the entire Star Wars Saga - the fall of Anakin and the rise of Darth Vader.
Now I can only hope that I can get this sad, waste of a movie out of my head enough to ever enjoy Episodes 4 - 6 again.
Lucas has repeatedly proved himself great in outlining grand story arcs and creating spectacular and innovative special effects, but unfortunately he's also proved that he his NOT A GOOD WRITER when it comes to dialog, plot details, realistic character motivations or any kind of real emotion. If Lucas could have just let his ego suffer a little and at least gotten someone else to direct this movie - it could have perhaps been salvaged.
This movie never moved me - even when characters that I know and have enjoyed are fighting for their lives and dying. I don't blame the actors - the blame rests solidly with Lucas. He's had decades and nearly unlimited resources to make these movies - and this is the best he can do?
I'd like to hit some of the movies most glaring failures. First, the big fight between Yoda and Sidious. Sidious gets in some good licks, Yoda gets in some good licks. Yoda falls and basically gets the wind knocked out of him and suddenly - he crawls away to hid! Even saying to Senator Organa who's driving the escape car - "I have failed, into exile I must go." What?! There is no way that fight should have ended like that - Yoda should not have given up so easily - he was one of the strongest and probably the most strong willed of all the Jedi and yet he runs away when a fight gets tough? Basically he ran away to hide in exile because the script said so. He had to in order to set up the events of the later movies. Lucas unfortunately was either not capable of coming up with a better, more dramatically convincing way for Sidious to get the best of Yoda (without having Yoda just sadly give up) or he was just lazy when it came to the plot details. The same with the pathetic and horrible death of Padme. She gives birth to Luke and Leia (whom she seems to name on the fly) and then promptly dies because she "has no will to live"?!. What a cop out!! This is a heroic character who's stood up against armies and fought in the Senate to protect her people. She's just given birth to two children who need a mother - yet she can't find the will to live? Argh! Lucas, give me a break and give your fans and even your characters some credit. Couldn't Padme have at least gone down fighting defending the babies from clone troopers or something instead of just dying because the script says so? The worst of course, was Anakin's turn to the Dark Side and his becoming Darth Vader - again the most critical event in the entire Star Wars Saga. Sure Anakin was troubled, frustrated and terribly worried about Padme - but it never came across as enough to make him betray all his friends, his years of Jedi training and become a loyal minion of Sidious. It was all too easy - Lucas didn't spend enough time or put enough thought into making this seem like something Anakin would do - even given his troubled state. To state it briefly - in one afternoon Anakin goes from turning Sidious over to Windu to murdering children in the Jedi Temple. Ridiculous. Perhaps Lucas is more concerned with the special effects and has so little respect for the fans that have made him rich that he'll just throw any junk on screen and call it "Star Wars". It's almost as if Lucas is the one that's gone over to the Dark Side - becoming worse than the studios that he once fought so he could maintain his creative freedom.
I do want to give some positive comments - Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid and Samual L. Jackson give good performances despite the weak dialog, weak script and weak directing.
I just wish this was a bad dream and that I could wake up and go see the "real" Revenge of the Sith. What a let down.