No woman no cry, man. I'm tellin' you.

Rating: 10/10 (6 June 2005)

(spoilers) I'll be the first to admit that I'm no Star Wars expert. I love the movies and I've seen them all, but I have friends who have such detailed knowledge about the mechanics and structure of the films and their interconnected stories that they make me feel like I've never seen any of them. That being said, I don't feel too bad about the knowledge coming as something of a surprise to me how much one woman played a role in the underlying conflict on which all six films are based. Bob Marley has never been so right (note: yes he has).
There is getting to be more and more conflict about the special effects, in effects movies in general but especially in the new Star Wars films, because it is getting to the point where almost nothing other than the actors was really there on the set, everything was added digitally later. I tend to agree that the movies are still good despite being so reliant on special effects, partly because one of the people that I heard complaining and moaning about the special effects said that they were what drove the entire movie, there was no acting, no interesting characters, and no story. The performances I can agree with, although they were better in Episode III than in I and II, but no story? There's no story in Star Wars, are you joking me? Good God man, there's enough story in Episode III to make three more films!
In keeping with what has been something of an increasing bar on the light saber fights since Episode I, Episode III manages to top Yoda's light saber fight from Episode II, which in turn had topped the one between Obi Wan, Qui Gon Jinn, and Darth Maul from Episode I. What I love about the big light saber scene in Episode III (although there are two, but I'm referring here to the first one), is that its effect is built upon the surprise of seeing one of the antagonists completely transform from a coughing and spluttering commander literally into a spinning and flashing machine of light saber inflicted death. Holy crap.
The fight between Obi Wan and Anakin Skywalker was outstanding, too. In mostly all of the light saber scenes that I've seen since Episode I, I keep thinking that they should really go faster. Thhen Yoda did it in Episode II and Obi Wan and Anakin do it here even more. Nice! Speaking of which, how about the scene where they're out on that huge outpost sticking out over the river of lava, and lava splashes over the arm holding up the post, melting it and causing the whole thing to fall into the burning river. We get a long shot of the thing standing up on the lava, floating down the river as it slowly melts into the molten rock, and all you can see of Obi Wan and Anakin is their light sabers flashing and slicing into each other on the side of it. Doesn't there ever come a time when you stop and just start commiserating?
As far as being the only Star Wars film that has ever been rated PG-13 rather than just PG, I think that the rating was deserved but also that the extra violence was justified as well. I imagine the end of the fight scene between Obi Wan and Anakin was most of the reason that the film got the harsher rating, but you kind of have to have something like that to really show a character transform from Annie Skywalker into Darth Vader, you know? Which, by the way, I actually liked the rise of Darth Vader better in the preview than I did in the movie  "Lord Vader" "Yes, Master." "RISE."
MAN that was good!
Ever since I knew that the trilogy of prequels was going to be made I have thought that Episode III would have the most anticipation and would be expected to accomplish more than the other two films, because it is the one that leads into the original Star Wars film, and I was really interested to know how it would be done, because obviously no one can come back from the original film and play a younger version of themselves, and who would audiences accept as a different person to play Obi Wan Kenobi or Luke Skywalker?