A good but underachieving film that should have been great

Rating: 6/10 (6 June 2005)

I suppose that the best word for how I feel about Revenge of the Sith is "frustrated." Not that it was a bad film, because it was a good film and I certainly do not regret seeing it in the theater.
ROTS had flashes of brilliance. The plot developed well, the effects were fantastic, the fight scenes were done very well in general, both the individual battles and the fleet-type actions. Lucas avoided the obvious "for the kids" stuff that plagued TPM and AOTC. This film should have been a world shaker.
But, the parts that clunked, really clunked.
First, for everyone who claims Hayden Christiansen is a bad actor, watch Shattered Glass. That was a tough to pull off, nuanced performance (he had to let the audience know that his histrionics and explanations were fraudulent and he didn't believe them, but make them believable enough so that the audience would believe that the other characters, who were bright people, would buy them until the very end), and he did very well- last year's overlooked 'best actor.' But, any scene between him and Natalie Portman lacked any real emotional gravitas. He even went into that petulant child routine he was doing in AOTC. Which meant that, for me, the whole "turning to the dark side to save Padme" bit rang a little hollow from the lack of emotional depth (an aside here- did anyone else notice that Padme sleeps in her regular, pearl- and-brooch decorated clothing? That has to be uncomfortable).
Second, the whole "Natalie Portman is dying" bit. If a character has lost the will to live, maybe that information should not be delivered to the audience via a robot. I could see that this was supposed to be an important emotional counterpoint to Anakin's fall from grace, but it just didn't have the impact that it should have. Whether or not it was consistent with her character as it had been developed, is a matter for debate. In any event, the juxtaposition of this and Anakin being put in the famous black suit should have been two equally powerful halves of the same coin. Anakin's part had power; Padme's didn't.
Third: the Jedi council could "sense darkness" all about Palpatine, but didn't really come up with any contingency plans? For the wise guardians of the good, that seemed like a real lack of due diligence...
It was a very good film, despite all of that, and it was fantastic when it was firing on all cylinders. My frustration is from the feeling that it should have been more. All in all, it is probably the third best of the six, ahead of ROTJ and the other prequels, but not good enough to redeem the prequel series as a whole.
Oh, and I agree with those who have talked about the lack of a Han Solo "good rebel" kind of character. That might have added some color and some adult levity (as opposed to the Jar-Jar 8 year old kind of levity) to the film. The lack of a similar character is missed. Sure Yoda kicks tail, but his dime-store Buddhism is no substitute for the much more empathetic Solo.