Doesn't suck?!

Rating: 7/10 (29 May 2005)

Any spoilers contained herein are for the people who will be shocked to learn that Darth Vader is really Luke's father, or that Bruce Willis was dead all along. I'm just putting that warning there for good measure.
My take on the Star Wars prequel trilogy differs from the consensus. I was a fan since childhood, and while I was disappointed with the later films, I realized first that I was not the target audience, and second that I could live with the disappointment. Prequels, by definition, are never an essential part of any story -- because they're simply showing us what we've already been told -- so my reaction to "Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones" was just a shrug.
"Revenge of the Sith", while not up to the quality of the original films, is a step above its immediate predecessors. Mostly this is the result of the film's darker tone: antihero Anakin Skywalker completes his descent into the Dark Side of the Force, abetting the downfall of the Republic and the creation of the Galactic Empire. Comic relief is cast by the wayside in favor of plenty of action; "Revenge" boasts the most lightsaber duels, space battles, and fight scenes of the entire series, and the good guys lose.
By 2005 special effects technology had developed enough to provide George Lucas with a solid CGI foundation for all of his adventures. Much of it is still slightly cartoonish -- like the computer-generated clone troopers -- but it comes with greater depth and detail, so that the exotic alien worlds are much more exciting to visit. The space battle that opens the film is one of the saga's most breathtaking scenes, crowded with burning starships and hurtling debris through which Anakin and Obi-wan must maneuver their tiny fighters.
And there we get to the series' main shortcoming: its actors. George Lucas has gone on record with his assertion that the wooden acting and clunky dialogue are all deliberate shout-outs to the Flash Gordon cliffhanger serials of the 1930s -- the music, the opening crawl, the caped villains, the fairy tale milieu -- but he seems to have run into some trouble communicating this idea to his cast, who appear adrift and confused. Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman underplay their parts in a misguided effort at naturalism, which winds up robbing the prequel trilogy of an emotional center. Only Ewan Macgregor, Ian McDiarmid and the other British actors manage to out-perform the special effects, because their performances are a little broader and theatrical -- without ever crossing the line into tongue-in-cheek parody.
In its better moments, "Revenge of the Sith" recalls the swashbuckling pulp adventures of the first Star Wars movies, even if it's never quite as satisfying. With tighter pacing (the editor was particularly lazy when cutting this film) it could have been a classic on its own, rather that just the final chapter of an anachronistic serial.