Flawed, but it completes the circle.

Rating: 7/10 (15 March 2008)

I've been a huge fan of Star Wars ever since I was a kid, and first saw the original trilogy. And yes, back then, Darth Vader was my very own Boogeyman. He was The Bad Guy. He was The One You Didn't Cross. His entrance in Episode 4 was all it took to convince me of that. I didn't even need to get as far as the 'If this is a consular ship, then where is the ambassador?' line, and the accompanying neck-snapping.
So how George Lucas expects us to believe that such an epic villain as Darth vader can be born from the perpetually whiny, nightmare-plagued, easily-duped Anakin Skywalker is anyone's guess. I'm not sure if the fault lies with Hayden Christianson's acting chops, or Big George's inability to write half-decent dialogue, especially for scenes involving anything approaching romance.
And another huge, glaring flaw is that, yes, once again, they refer to midichlorians as the source of one's ability to feel and use the Force. This is pathetic. It makes me wonder if George finally got around to watching the Japanese movie Parasite Eve, and decided to rip off the mitochondria phenomenon. It sure sounds a lot like it to me. It's unoriginal, it's sloppy, and it's a weak attempt to stuff even more pseudo-science into the films. Myself, I liked the original trilogy because the Force was a mysterious thing. You had room to guess, as to exactly how it worked. Or you could just take it on faith that what matters is that it does work, not how.
I have to feel bad for Natalie Portman, who I've admired ever since I first saw her in Leon: The Professional. She also turned out a great performance in V for Vendetta, and deserved a better-written role than George handed her here. The dialogue was horrible and stilted, and for Padme to simply 'lose the will to live' and keel over just after giving birth is some of the weakest story-telling ever. It's a feeble cop-out to just get the character out of the story for continuity's sake. Padme dies when she does because the uber-plot says so. There's no better reason.
As for the good points, yes there are some. The dogfighting scenes with the starfighters were very flashy and well-done. Mucho excitement there. The battles of the Clone Wars that we see are good, even despite the ripped-off Tarzan yell that one of the Wookiees uses. And the choreography for the lightsaber fights has been turned right up to '11' on the intensity dial. The last battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan was breath-taking, and actually left me winded from just watching it. Still, Obi should have had enough love for Anakin to just put him out of his misery. You gotta know he had more than his share of misery, being burned alive after losing three limbs.
And at the end of the whole mixed-bag of good and bad, quality and cheesy, we see the birth of Darth vader. We get to hear the first breaths through that fearsome black mask, and see Vader take his first lumbering steps. Okay, maybe it is due to the fact that he just had new bionic limbs flash-grafted to his stumps. Maybe he's not even close to used to his new form. But still, that doesn't excuse the Frankensteinian clumsiness. And the overdone cry of 'NOOOOOOOOO!' made me shake my head. If he was really in so much agony over Padme's death, why was Palpatine untouched by those waves of Force destruction? If Vader was truly grieving, he wouldn't have cared who was nearby. Heads would have been exploding left, right, and center. Palpy's included.
Overall, it's not perfect, but it is the wrap-up to one of the biggest cinematic events ever. If you can choke back your bile over the flaws and just put your brain on 'cruise', you might even enjoy it.