So I'm not really a hardcore Star Wars fan but I went to see this yesterday (er, today) at midnight. I was a little disappointed that there were no crazy people in costume and stuff like that, but I guess this is Ithaca and basically everyone in the theater was a college student in the middle of finals...not too much time to plan those things.
Anyway, no, this was not the best Star Wars movie ever. But it was such a vast improvment over the last two installments that I left the theater feeling pretty satisfied with how the whole saga was finished off. The second half, which was setting up the beginning of Episode IV, was especially good.
The bad stuff first: George Lucas still writes some of the worst dialogue on the planet. That campy, cheesy stuff worked back in the 70s and 80s with the plastic models and whatever, but this is a visually slick, serious movie. The "romantic" scenes between Anakin and Padme were so fantastically bad that they were comical. I wonder how the actors managed to get some of those lines out without cracking up. (A classic: Padme crying "Hold me!") A lot of the acting left something to be desired too, but I blame most of that on bad writing. There were some bright spots though: Ewan McGregor was wonderful in his last pleas to Anakin, Ian McDiarmid did a pretty good job at revealing himself as the Sith lord, and Samuel L. Jackson and Jimmy Smits were solid. And the computer generated characters were great too...who knew that beeps and flashing lights could be so expressive?
But what is up with the ridiculous names that Lucas makes up? He seems to really like the "oo" sound, with Count Dooku, Naboo, Wookies, Tatooine...seriously, even Voldemort sounds scarier than DOOKU. And General Grievous? He just sucked all around, but his name was so stupid.
I was also a little underwhelmed with Anakin's turn to the Dark Side. I mean, yeah, we saw that he was all conflicted and upset and blah blah, but those final moments before he finally gave in didn't really cut it for me. He was all like, "that's not the Jedi way!" and "what have I done?" and then all of a sudden, "yes, I will serve you, master." Maybe a better actor would have made it more believable, but I wasn't too happy with that.
Anyway, the first half was a lot like Episode II, with plenty of special effects, battle scenes, stupid romantic encounters, Anakin's whining...but the second half really picked it up. Obi-Wan's fight with Count Grievous was fun, and the scenes where the Jedi were betrayed and killed were pretty chilling. The final fights between Obi-Wan/Anakin and Yoda/Palpatine were cut together really well, as were the suiting of Darth Vadar and the birth of the twins. They were very serious...tragic almost. Anakin's final transformation in to Vadar wasn't a triumph, as you might have expected. It was depressing. Especially since the so-called reason he turned to the Dark Side didn't even work out (Padme still died in childbirth). Emotionally, a very well done ending.
A few fun things: the Wookies and Chewbacca make their first appearance, Jar Jar Binks shows up at Padme's funeral (someone in the audience said out loud, "It's Jar Jar!" which was great), and Padme wears Leia's classic hairdo (I guess hairstyle runs in the family).
Oh, and my one big nitpick: Padme was definitely not big enough to give birth to two pretty normally sized babies. I personally know a woman who recently gave birth to twins who were both almost seven pounds, and she was HUGE. Yeah, Natalie's a small girl and it probably wouldn't have been attractive to put her in a larger pregnancy belly, but come on, people. She really barely looked pregnant at all.
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