Using the wrong Anakin/Vader ruined it

Rating: 6/10 (24 May 2005)

"Star Wars: Episode III" was a decent enough effort to end the prequel trilogy. It would have been much better, IMHO, if George Lucas had the sense (or the balls) to replace Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader). Perhaps I am being over-critical, but I'm a fan; it's my job. Every time H.C. opened his big, fat mouth to deliver a line, well, it wasn't so much delivered as fell flat on its' face. Everyone around him was acting their butts off (even Padmé (Natalie Portman) turned in a halfway-decent performance, a welcome change from Ep.'s I & II), but H.C. was B.S.
The SFX were kick-ass (we expect no less from Lucasfilm/ILM), but there weren't enough Wookies. The Wookies got the short end of the stick throughout this prequel trilogy, especially when the battle between the Wookies and the droid army was cut way too short. Also, not enough Jimmy Smits as Sen. Organa. OTOH, Jar-Jar's cameo was mercifully brief (and silent).
Still, this film only rates a 6/10 (and you can thank Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson & Co. that I didn't rate it 1/10), because H.C. was totally unconvincing as Vader. Even at the end, where H.C. dons the familiar black armor and James Earl Jones takes over the voice-acting, he still manages to stink up the joint.