Come on...

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 2005)

I am 22 years old. I'm not dumb. I'm a college graduate and have a job and am doing just fine for myself. George Lucas didn't make this movie for "dumb kids" as I have read in many of the posts on this website. Give me a break. I loved "Sith". As somebody who has been a fan of all the movies (yes, even Phantom and Clones), I can definitely say that this was the most plot oriented movie of them all.
This weekend I re-watched IV-VI right after I watched III. Those movies were actually laughable. Nobody really dies, Luke is this wide eyed nice guy that just automatically becomes Jedi trained, and there were parts in "Empire" when I really thought that nobody cared about Luke. I mean, Leia just left him in Cloud City to fight Vader. If he hadn't pulled that "Leia, save me" mind thing as he was hanging off that rail, then she wouldn't have even bothered to go back and save him. And seriously, are you really going to tell me that Vader never knew his kids were born? Come on...he can sense everything. And if you were Luke and you were trying to talk your Dad into being a good guy again and become a father, wouldn't you mention your Mom? Or when he was dying, don't you think that you would have asked about her? I mean, sure it's impossible to jumble all that into a 10 minute scene, but there were some necessary things in IV-VI that weren't there. They were very much less "plot" oriented and more action, fun and adventure, which is what they were going for in the 70s.
In I-III, it was more about the story. The fans are older now, and I think Lucas wanted to give them something a little more mature, dark, and emotional. I think the reason most people love Return of the Jedi is because of the ending. It ended well. Darth was revealed to be a good guy after all. Lucas wanted to play off that emotion in "Sith" and I think he did it well.
Hayden, in my honest opinion, was an excellent choice for Anakin. I saw him in "Life as a House" a few years ago and was blown away by his performance. Sure, in Clones he seems like a bratty teenager, but that's what he was supposed to be. You were supposed to see an immature side to him...a dangerous, rebellious side. In "Sith" he was more grown up. He was less hot headed. But what I loved about Hayden's performance was that he really portrayed the internal conflict so well. I could feel the good in him, but I could see the danger in him as well. He made you believe that he was on a short fuse, but that he knew the consequence of his actions. You could tell he wanted to be a good Jedi, but in the final moments, gave up what he knew was right to save somebody he loved. It's sort of evil, but it's sort of pure too. It matches the Darth Vader we seen in "Return of the Jedi", the conflicting, good vs. evil spirit in him.
Yea, there were things about the movie I didn't get. For example, how could the Jedi not have known that Anakin was living with Padme??? If Obi went over to Anakin's house and she was just there...I mean, isn't that a giveaway?? That didn't make any sense to me.
But all in all, awesome movie. Good emotion, good action, good ending to a bunch of classics.