Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

It's over. For me, it's a special thing, to have been alive for all 6 of these movies, regardless of their critical or social acceptance. It's not the same as the Rings trilogy. For that I only had to wait 3 years. For this, I waited 28 years. Episode IV (as it's now called) was a special awakening for me, as Episodes I-III probably are for pre-teens now. I don't know if this is THE film that got me interested in cinema in general, but I remember it as a momentous one. I am under no illusion that the acting in most of the six films is under par, and that the story is a hodge-podge of mythology and run-of-the-mill adventure tales. This doesn't bother me at all. While I couldn't care less about Episodes I and II and will probably never see them again in my life, Episode III was special. If you listen to radio or TV or read newspapers you can't escape the critics saying that this one is darker, more tightly scripted and that it wraps everything up in a neat bow. I concur. And it's just what I wanted. The acting still stinks except, of course, for Ewan McGregor who emulates his parallel co-star in more ways than are obvious from this one role. Most critics, and viewers, are going to say that Hayden Christensen is as bad as he was in the last film. I agree...to a point. It's difficult, to transform from someone we're meant to admire to someone we hate. And it's no fault of Christensen's that the deciding moment is scripted weakly. It is his fault that he doesn't play that scene consistently. But, he remains alluring and enigmatic until the final showdown and that's just not easy. It's silly to describe any of the plot -- you know which pieces are needed and it's a matter of seeing how Lucas puts it together. I was impressed more by digital clarity this time around. I wonder if the brightness of the first two films made this more difficult to notice. In particular, I was thrilled by the first extended battle sequence. Everything's faster and more furious than in the other films -- a good kickoff to the final story. Apparently, Lucas and his kids are in the film but I'll have to rent (or quite possibly buy) it to pinpoint them. This does, however, let me segue into a story -- when I was in the Bay Area last summer, I went to my favorite restaurant, The Fog City Diner, to enjoy a quiet meal at the diner counter. Instead, I watched and listened to the eyebrow-raising antics of two teenagers next to me. After they left, two waiters were laughing over how crazy George Lucas' daughter was. How I would have loved to have known that earlier, if only to lean across the counter and say "So, what do you think of your Dad's films?"

year: 2005
length: 140 min.
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121766/combined