SPOILER FREE

Well, we all have to see ROTS because it's the last Star Wars movie and because it does make an honest effort to tie the two trilogies together. However, Lucas has completed the circle and Sith is another helping of mediocrity.

I think it can be summarized in this way: I feel disappointed. The excitement I had hoped to feel just isn't there. Right now, I'm not even sure I want to see it a second time today. There just wasn't anything that new, different, or consistently exciting going on. Finally, Lucas does insert some true emotion in this one from friendship to anger to grief, creating the first moments when we truly care or are moved by his prequel trilogy. Certainly there's eye candy out the wazoo, but it still just doesn't work. It still feels too fake, but this time George is also REALLY showing off what he can do, as clearly evidenced in the very opening minutes of the movie. Yes, there are some great action sequences and some brilliant lightsabre battles, but they don't balance out the continued plot convolutions, horrendous dialogue, and atrocious acting. Lucas just doesn't bring the best out of anyone, and you'll never see a more wretched example of pathetic acting from such talents as McGregor, Jackson, or Portman. When you hear some of the insipid lines between Padme and Anakin, you'll want to barf. Ain't love grand?!?

As our carload trekked home, the near entirety of the discussion was saying what we didn't like about the film. And there was quite a bit. At the end I asked, "Well, what do we like about the film?" I think the only two things we ended up with was Hayden's bare chest (there were three ladies in the car) and everything on the lava planet. I think we'll also toss in the action sequences on the whole. Obivously, this is not a ringing endorsement. And, sadly, I have to toss in that it appears John Williams missed the mark again here. None of his new score jumped out at me during the film - except "Battle of the Heroes" but only because I recognized it. Only when he revisited his old, classic themes did it catch my ear. Even on the way home, the few tracks I was able to listen to do CD were just so-so.

Regardless, go see Sith but expect a final serving of middling mediocrity. I am sad to say that this is still NOT "the movie we've been waiting for," but it is decidedly the best of the prequel trilogy.

I sat in theater number twelve tonight. According to the complex, ALL 20 screens were sold out. Wow! I wonder how many feel the same way my friends and I do? At least there was a consolation prize, we all received a free "re-admit pass" on the way out. I have two hypothesis for this, neither related to the quality of Lucas' film. First, it's because the framing was incorrect at the beginning of the film. Oh, the previews were perfect, but once we got to the film itself, it was rolled so it was split horizontally, with the top of the film on the bottom half of the screen and the bottom half on the top. You should have heard how ballistic we got. Luckily it was fixed by the time "Episode III" showed up. Or, secondly, maybe it was because the sound mix was "off." I felt the audio was too low, with the surrounds having minimal action. Seeing what was onscreen, I can't imagine that was the true mix. In either case, I got my $10 back.

Maybe we'll have better luck with episodes seven through nine...

May the Force Be With You.