Lets get the few bad things out of the way first.
Gripes
- Too much exposition at the end. The binary sunset thing was OK, but overall I would have liked that whole sequence from the birth of the twins forward to be about ten minutes shorter, so I could leave the theater on a Darth Vader high.
- Qui-Gon. Come on, either give us more than that, or don't put it in there at all. It feels so shoe-horned. I wanted to see a force-ghost.
- That opening space battle, while OK, did not seem very all-out to me. I think I was hoping for some hugeass turbolasers like those on the side of Star Destroyers being fired.
- "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!1!1111one+shiftone@#!"
Things I Liked
- Everything about Palpatine. My mom thought the cackling glee of deformed-Sidious in the fight with Yoda was hammy, but I thought it was excellent. I keep seeing an alternate version of one of his lines as "A long time waiting for this I have been." [/mocking glee]
- Mace Windu. Not because I think he is a BFM, but because he shows more clearly than Yoda or OB1 the institutional dysfunctions of the Jedi Order. "Lets overthrow a duly-elected head of state because we don't like his policies and we think he belongs to a rival religion! That will protect the democratic process real well, and won't play into Palpy's hands at all!"
On a side note, I anticipate much groaning in response to brain-dead reviewers comparing the Jedi to the "evil activist judges."
- Darth Vader. Cold, ruthless, methodical, and evil (though still a little angsty), just as we all wanted him to be. His psychosis at the end with his exchanges between himself and Padme and Kenobi really work for me.
"I can overthrow the Chancellor. And then, Padme, we can rule the galaxy together, make things the way we always wanted them to be! Don't you betray me."
- Order 66, Yoda's response, Obi-Wan's grief. The younglings. So real, so tragic. It helped me understand Obi-Wan's behavior in the OT much more clearly.
- Anakin's coronation. It's good precisely because Palpy is being over-the-top. Those who say it's unrealistic for Anakin to go with it after this are missing the point; like DW said, he's not twirling a mustache, he's going "Oh shit." The masks are off, and Skywalker's screwed.
- Screw you all, I liked the Padme/Anakin scenes. They induced some cringes at the beginning, but improved steadily throughout IMHO. Mostly because you could see how much was not being said. Anakin says "This is a blessing" but you can
see that he's thinking "I'm fucked." Anakin talks about beauty and bright futures but you can see his apprehension. The only Anakin who talks straightly to Padme, revealing his true heart to her, is Darth Vader, and he crushes her trachea.
- Come to think of it, I liked HC's character in general, aside from the aforementioned "NOOOOO!!!!!" His angsty, brooding nature fits in well with this story; he's clearly struggling, until the very end when he goes batshit. I will never, ever think of the post-Windu version of that character by any name other than Darth Vader.
- Every duel in the movie, with the possible exception of the first one. Fantastic-looking swordplay.
Other Thoughts
- The first half of the movie is like an enormous joke set up at the expense of the main characters. Here they are, the heroes of the Republic, trusting each other, bravely fighting side-by-side and exchanging the lovely banter we all expect from Star Wars heroes. Never for a moment do they imagine how their head-of-state is a sorceror, how their enemies are hoaxes, how their war is a set-up, how their friends are programmed to coldly murder them, how their hero is a sociopath, and how fucked eight ways from Christmas they were before the movie even began. It seemed to exist solely to make it clear how little they expect what happens to them; even the soundtrack plays into this theme.
- I identified at least three points where I knew that if the good guys made one little decision a little differently, the entire tragedy would have turned upside-down. First, with Mace Windu. Come on dude, don't leave Anakin hanging here. Bring him along, give him a chance to confront his manipulator as a brother Jedi. Make him feel like one. Second, also Mace Windu. Don't kill the guy; can't you see how much more important it is to keep Skywalker on your side? Your violating both the Republic and your own Jedi Code here, and turning your messiah into a monster while your at it. Show some professionalism. Finally, Obi-Wan. I'm not thinking of his hiding in Padme's ship, I'm thinking about the end of the battle, where Vader is lying on the ground, defeated, seemingly about to cry, and Obi-Wan leaves him to die. Now I know, taking him with him would just enable the Emperor to track you, but the sentimental side of me wanted so badly for Obi-Wan to pick Vader up and go "I have not, and will not, betray you, Anakin." These things didn't harm the movie in my estimation; they made it all the more tragic. I will never see Vader the same way again.
- When Palpy announces the formation of the Empire, he says something that I didn't quite hear. It came after "... the First Galactic Empire!" He seemed to be just mumbling, even though he was shouting. Anyone catch what it was he said?
) but most are just explorations of the SW galaxy.