It says something about me that I don’t want to think about too much that straight after watching Episode III I wanted to blog my reactions. Does this make me sad for being a web geek or Star Wars geek? Actually, don’t answer that.
The film can be sectioned in three. Section One: Mostly OK. Section Two: So bad it made me want to stab my eyes out. Section Three: Mostly good.
Section one was full of typical Lucas over-reliance on SFX. One scene featured General Grievous’ ship approaching a planet, then landing on the planet, then GG himself leaving the ship and walking off whereupon we switch to another scene. What the hell was the point of this scene?. Some of the effects were really good – the top-down view of the space battle looking toward the planet surface was great – but George, please – use ’em sparingly!
Section two. Oh dear. Has no one told Haydn that he can’t act? This section concentrates on building up the relationship between Anakin and Padme and it…is…dreadful. The writing is just appalling:
ANAKIN: You are so beautiful!
PADME: It’s only because I’m so in love . . .
ANAKIN: No, it’s because I’m so in love with you.
PADME: So love has blinded you?
ANAKIN: Well, that’s not exactly what I meant . . .
PADME: But it’s probably true!
They laugh.
What??? What does that even mean?
Section three is an improvement. This really starts when Sidius kills all the Jedi (from invincible to inept in 5 seconds – so much for the Force). Haydn still can’t act but at least he can glower convincingly. The ending fight between Anakin and Kenobi is really good and some (gasp!) decent acting from Ewan McGregor allows us to feel Kenobi’s pain at maiming his apprentice. Not before some more terrible dialogue though. At the end of the fight Kenobi jumps into firm ground – Anakin moves to come after him:
OBI-WAN: It’s over, Anakin. I have the high ground.
Hmm. If only ever General in the history of warfare had realised that merely being slightly higher than your opponent meant you’d automatically win any fight. Bet they feel silly now.
The creation of Darth Vader was excellent but they should’ve left it when he started doing the patented Darth heavy breathing, as subsequent scenes saw Vader perfecting his Al Jolson routine (Stiff legs, hand waggling) in a vastly amusing manner. Not what you want to see from the Lord of Darkness.
Still a good film just don’t go expecting Shakespeare.
Left Brain Right Brain 
I’m afraid I’ve got to disagree with you when you say, “Still a good film …,” though I’ll bite on the “… don’t go expecting Shakespeare” bit.
I agree with many of your points, but left the film feeling very disappointed, as I have with both Episodes I & II.
If you’re interested in reading my thoughts, I’ve also blogged on it (why are we all blogging on this?). So, “here’s a second opinion”:http://theturninggate.com/blog/58/star-bored-episode-iii.
We’re all blogging on it because we feel totally disenfranchised by Lucas. The writing is…just…awful – this is what happens when one man with an indifferent talent is given total artistic control.
Does worry me slightly that this seems to matter so much to me though!
Well… personally myself, I didn’t find the movie to be that crappy. And I think there is one reason why… I didn’t go into this moving thinking… This one will fix them all… this one has to make up for the others.
With the downfall of the first two I went into this one thinking… it’ll at least be decent and have some good scenes. But then again there was a little but of dumb parts (one no one mentioned yet was in the final fight once part of the fight they just swung the light sabers around themselves for like 5 seconds before going back at attacking each other)
Over all… I say it’s was pretty good… Lucas just do us a favor… don’t write dialog anymore… keep the wicked movies coming… just don’t do dialog
“just don’t do dialog”.
Too right Richard – damn you George!!!