blockbuster end to the series

Rating: 10/10 (26 May 2005)

Saw it last night. First of all it is by far the most outstanding and cutting edge sci-fi digital film to date. The visual effects are so enjoyable that the megabucks Lucas must have spent to produce it was well spent. Just stay long enough to watch the credits roll at the end of the film and try and count how many animators he used! Wow. The acting is good, not great. The draw is the visual drama, the fact that we know the plot and where it's going. By the end of the film your heart is a lump in your throat as the curtain comes down. There are a few things that linger in my mind. At the end Yoda mentions something very odd about how he needs Obi-wan to go into training while he stays for years in deep cover. What training? To learn how to contact his lately lamented Jedi Master trainer. That's the way I understood it and I'll certainly be seeing the movie again to make sure I heard correctly. Talking to dead teachers is something that Lucas covered in the first few films but no one made much of a fuss about it. When I heard it this time I was really surprised. The implications.....remind me of the now famous line "...I see dead people" and you can figure out the rest of the spooky factor. Another thing I am mystified at is what Padme mumbles just as she is dying. I could not for the life of me hear what she was saying....something about the Sith perhaps.
All in all the film is a wonderful drama which at the very end makes you cringe in your seat as you watch Annakin destroyed and nearly killed in a scene plucked right out of Dante's "Inferno". There was no comedy in this hellish final fight scene and to see him suffer so much was very hard to watch. This is a film for adults only. Children should not be allowed to sit through this; totally inappropriate. The amount of murders alone is really a surprise, with Lucas finally making a real adult film.
In closing I should say that Williams has written a superb score for voice, choir and orchestra. It sounds at times like a soaring symphony and is seamlessly woven into the entire movie. Great soundtrack and truly Oscar material.
I intend to buy a copy of the DVD when it comes out as this is a real keeper. Well done Lucas. You gave us a mountain of superb entertainment value over these many years and you created an entirely new way of making films.