Revenge of the Bad Dialog

Well, I finally got around to seeing Revenge of the Sith last night. Even though everyone who saw it before me (i.e., just about anyone who reads my blog, I dare say) has already delivered their commentaries, I'm still going to put in my two cents worth.

First major point is that I enjoyed it. Not that it's going in my top 10 or anything like that, but IMO it's the best of the prequel trilogy by far. I really liked seeing the threads of the story at last tie in to A New Hope and the later movies, from Palpatine's transformation to the wizened Emperor, to the clones appearing in armor that will become the familiar garb of the Imperial storm troopers. And I have to say that visually, Ewan McGregor fits the part of the young Obi-wan very well; it's quite easy to envision him aging into Alec Guinness.

That said, some gripes and a few nits to pick:

1. Good Lord, the dialog stinks. The most egregious is the references to the "younglings." Other specifics have slipped my mind already, probably because I don't want to remember them.
2. Good Lord, Hayden Christensen's acting stinks. Granted, he didn't have much to work with in the way of dialog, but neither did Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford in ANH, and they managed to exhibit some personality and emotion. I almost think I preferred Jake Lloyd; he may have been too cute and sappy, but at least he wasn't such a block of wood.
   
3. It's been said many times already, and I must concur: Padme rolls over and dies much too easily. It wouldn't have been difficult to have her succumb to complications brought on by injuries sustained at Anakin's hands, thus making more real Palpatine's statement that Anakin killed her.
4. Either there's something in the air on Tatooine that prematurely ages people, or there are some continuity problems in the timeline. In ANH, Luke can't be more than, what, 18 maybe? That means 18 years elapse between the end of Ep 3 and the beginning of Ep 4. While Ewan McGregor, as I said above, does make a good young Obi-wan to Alec Guinness's older portrayal, an age difference of only 18 years just isn't believable. Owen and Beru Lars also look a bit too young to turn into the Episode 4 versions in 18 years, though the discrepancy doesn't seem as great as for Obi-wan.
5. It's nice to see that they created an explanation for C3PO not knowing anything about Tatooine or Obi-wan, etc., by having Bail Organa order that Threepio's memory be wiped. It does not, however, explain Threepio's statement in Episode 4 that he wasn't quite sure who the girl in the hologram was -- he said she was a passenger on the ship they were on, and (he thought) a "person of some importance." (That line in fact never even made sense within the context of Episode 4, where he had previously said quite clearly, "There'll be no escape for the princess this time." Obviously he knew exactly who she was.)
6. At the end it looked like the Death Star was about half done. Apparently it took them another 18 years to finish it. Damn, it's hard to get good help.
   

Today I pulled out SW: A New Hope (the special edition DVD) to rewatch. It was amusing to pick up little discrepancies created by Episode 3. Most notably, "Old Ben" Kenobi tells Luke that he hasn't been called Obi-wan "since, oh, before you were born." I'd have sworn they were still calling him Obi-wan when they were discussing where to hide the babies. I think old Ben had been living alone in the desert too long and his memory was failing.

Don't know that I'd pay to see ROTS again in the theater, but I'll get the DVD when it comes out to complete my set.