Star Wars Review

Right off, it's definitely better than the last two. Of course, that's not saying much. I really enjoyed it a lot, though Vicki is a bit more lukewarm.

The good? Well, the writing is "better" in the sense that you don't get the impression that the English language wronged George Lucas in a previous life, and now he's getting his revenge. There are still a few truly cringe-worthy lines, most of them delivered by Natalie Portman. Ewan MacGregor is excellent once more as Obi-Wan. Ian McDiarmid probably has the best role in the entire movie, as Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine.

Of course, the main story is Anakin's transformation from good to evil. Hayden Christensen does better this time around, but it's a shame that a decent actor gets such horrible scripts. I know most people didn't see Life As a House, but he was really very good, and George Lucas should be ashamed at wasting such good talent. I honestly believe that, if Lucas had seriously wanted to make good movies, instead of simply indulging his own ego, he would have turned the screenplays over to an actual writer. In any case, the transformation is actually very believable, and Anakin's motives are understandable - a nice change from previous Lucas villains (coughcoughTradeFederationcough.)

The movie does have it's lesser points, and here is where the first two installments show: Because Lucas wasted his two previous opportunities at storytelling, Episode III is extremely fast-paced. In some places, this is good - it certainly doesn't drag like I and II, or for that matter IV. However, because he wasted so much time before, the third film really has to cover so much story to set us up for episodes IV-VI. This leads to a lot of back-and-forth cuts, and you get the feeling like you're watching a music video, not a Star Wars movie.

Does it make up for the obscenity that was Jar-Jar Binks? Not entirely. But overall, I really enjoyed it. A much darker story, but overall a better put-together one as well. The script still sucks in places, but the action more than makes up for it. I'm not going to give it stars or anything, but if you paid for Episodes I and II, then you owe it to yourself to get your money's worth out of it. See this one - it's the only one of the new three that's actually worth it, but it actually is worth it.