Why did Anakin turn to the Dark Side?

Rating: 4/10 (21 May 2005)

The movie was enjoyable in parts, but I got a feeling watching it that it will definitely not stand up to multiple viewings. Like Lucas was using a "trick" many modern filmmakers use these days: trying to throw enough gimmicks and nonsense on the screen as to distract you from being able to see that there's nothing of any importance or depth going on in the movie. My complaints about the first two prequels were that what I'd really wanted from these movies was to see a young bad-ass Vader killing everyone and to see some cool space battles, but I realized having seen a movie that has all that that it wasn't really what I wanted out of these prequels.
What I really wanted to know was what was it that made a guy who was a Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, turn on everyone he knew and cared about and become such an evil person. I figured with this movie I would finally get to see why Anakin decided to turn to the dark side, but I have to say, I still don't know. In a matter of hours (at the most) he goes from wanting to kill Palpatine or have him arrested to deciding that he'll be his slave and go kill a bunch of kids? The closest I could get to an answer to why he turned to the dark side is because it seemed like he made a snap decision to disarm Mace Windu, before Mace could execute Palpatine, by cutting off his arm; then after Palpatine finished Mace off, Anakin suddenly figured "oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound." That, to me anyway, just didn't jibe. You can see he immediately regretted cutting off Mace's arm, but then he suddenly drops to his knees in front of Palpatine and tells him he'll kill every Jedi, including a bunch of kids and his closest friends? That makes no sense. And supposedly he did it to save Padame, yet almost the first chance he gets he tries to kill her? To me the whole success of the movie really had to hinge on believing that Anakin (or anyone) could have made the choice that he made. To say he was simply tricked into it doesn't wash, because then why did he devote the rest of his life to the guy that deceived him? Since the basic crux of this film and this trilogy didn't make any sense, it's not really possible to give this movie a good rating. Large parts of the movie didn't make sense either, but this, the most important aspect, not making sense is really what kills the movie in my opinion. This film even goes a long way to making one question many things in the original trilogy which you simply took for granted. In addition to questioning what Darth Vader's motivation is for Episodes IV, V and VI, you have to question why the Emperor needed to disband the Senate and build the Death Star to rule the galaxy through "fear". The Senate applauds (loudly) everything he does, including declaring the Republic now an "Empire". Padme even goes so far as to be shocked at how well this is received.
It was not a very well thought-out movie, just like the other two in this trilogy, and it really does a huge disservice to the original trilogy by being so poorly envisioned. Hopefully if they ever do make Episodes VII, VIII and IX Lucas will neither write nor direct them, because he clearly doesn't know what he's doing. This trilogy has surely shown that much of the credit for the effectiveness of the original trilogy should go to people like Lawrence Kasdan, Leigh Brackett & Irvin Kershner. The main credit Lucas should get for those movies was for having the foresight to let those people craft his vision and for fighting and paying for that vision to be produced. Unfortunately his wisdom of letting someone else write and direct was consumed in the enormous ego that has grown in the decades since the original trilogy was completed.