Pete The Elder

The actual path Anakin follows to the dark side was better and deeper than I expected and the Sith come out looking more complex than I thought they would. The Jedi are in a lose/lose situation: they try to overthrow the legitimate ruler of the republic because he is a Sith lord. The Sith are trying to replace what seems from Episodes I and II to be a very ineffective republic with a more efficient, secure, orderly, and responsive empire. (see this earlier post) I thought the end of the Jedi scene was very well done and had a good emotional punch with Jedi after Jedi after Jedi getting assassinated. When Darth Vader walked into the room of younglings and later when a youngling took on some storm troopers and then was killed I thought it was appropriate. If these are really Jedi in training the Sith would need to take them out and most movies do not have the guts to show children like that as dangerous warriors who kill and are killed.

The other battle scenes were well done and I liked general Grievous as an answer to why do only the Jedi have light sabers. The final confrontation between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan was both exciting and dramatic. There conversation had a good depth and the actual battle was about as good as a two former close friends dueling with light sabers over a river of raging lava can be. Vaders final demise and transformation into the machine Vader was appropriate and tragic. After seeing this film it is believable how the innocent Anakin from Episode I becomes Darth Vader and how Vader is later redeemed by Luke in Return of the Jedi.

The older characters made sense in this film as well and there were not too many loose ends. Some people have complained about things like why doesnt Vader remember C-3P0 and R2-D2 in episodes. If I remember correctly it is because they never meet face to face in any of those movies. Vader confronts every other heroic character up close at some point, but not the two droids. I assumed that C-3P0s memory would be wiped at some point after first seeing episode I and that is what happens at the end of Revenge of the Sith, which explains why he does not know much about Vader later on. Others have complained about potential plot flaws, but most of them seem fairly minor to me.

Chewbaca and the wookie battle were cool and did not feel out of place. Yoda was good and his battle with Palpatine was interesting. Count Dookus fight and eventual death was very well done and I liked his line of twice the pride, twice the fall. The brief cameo by Tofkin was good at least to those like me geeky enough to realize who he was. Mace Windu became an interesting character in movie and his last scene was well done and finally made his character worth including. I will probably go and see Revenge of the Sith again when it hits the dollar theaters.