better than episodes 1 & 2 but still a disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (19 May 2005)

I saw the movie today and, much as I really wanted to love it, I just left feeling flat. I'm a big fan of Ewan McGregor, but his acting in this, as well as the rest of the cast, was terrible, if not entirely their fault. From what I've heard of George Lucas's style they got very little direction from him, and with the shocking dialog they were given, there was little they could do. The stuff between Padme and Annakin was particularly cringe-inducing. And that scream by James Earl Jones at the end, everyone in the theater laughed. Also, with basically the whole movie being shot against green screen the actors had nothing to relate to. I remember hearing the actors from LOTR saying how much it helped them that they had carefully crafted sets and amazing locations to help get them into the atmosphere of the place, and their characters. Gee George, just build some @#$% sets why don't you, use some in camera effects. Yes today you can do amazing things with computers, that doesn't mean they're always the best way to go, IMO CGI is much better adding to what's there, making slight changes, not taking over the show. CGI has it's place, it was jut used badly in this film, every scene just screamed, look at what my computers can do. Apart from all that, there was just something missing from this film, a spark. The whole thing seemed kind of hurried, and rushed from one set-piece to another. There was actually too much fighting, to the point where it became boring. This movie did dispense with some of the things that ruined Ep 1 & 2, but one thing that still irritated me, was the jokey nature of the enemy droids, it still just seems out of place. Plus, what happened to R2D2, a lot of his capabilities seem to have gotten broken somewhere between Ep's 3 & 4. O.K, with computers you can make him do all kinds of things now, but as he wasn't doing them (i.e. flying round, springing up out of position on a ship) in Ep's 4 - 6, it's a bit silly to have him able to in these movies. Some of the light saber duels I liked, but the one between Mace Windu and Palpatine was terrible, it was obvious neither actor was comfortable with fencing. Neither of the actors they used for Annakin in the prequels suited the role and there was just no chemistry between the actors, that was one of the many things that made the original trilogy great. However, I'll try to end on a high note, what did I like about the film? The final light saber battle between Hayden and Ewan looked great, they both obviously took a lot of time training and it really paid off, makes the duels in Ep IV - VI look a bit tame, but then again, their characters had been training with light sabers for a lot longer than Luke did. Also, the effects they put on annakin from being burnt etc looked great too. My favourite scene in the movie would have to be the clones turning on the Jedi, it was just brutal. Anyway, that's my rant. In the end, if people haven't seen Ep's 1 - 3, I'd probably tell them not to bother, just watch Ep's 4 - 6 again, watching this movie has certainly inspired me to.