Our republic

I was Cinema Billy again last night, but I felt that I had to see George Lucas' latest offering to the gods of Marketing and Merchandising. I'll try and keep it short though, because it seems every man and his ewok has written reviews[1] of this film. Oh, and watch for spoilers :)

Revenge of the Sith

First, as always, pseudo-pull-quotes:

• Great screen-saver, average movie.
• Dude, where's my Padawan?
• Perhaps the highest praise I can give this film, having seen Episodes I and II, is that it doesn't totally suck.

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It's not a bad film, as they go. It's just not great.

Good things: Light-sabre fighting, CGI Yoda still is the coolest thing in the universe

The way the film ties-in with Episode IV is nicely handled. I really appreciated it, so I imagine the hardcore fanboys are wetting their pants at spotting the links (not to mention alienating everyone they know by pointing out all of the links).

The light-sabre fights look awesome, esp. Obi-Wan and Vader's showdown.

The destruction of the jedi is pretty well handled.

Bad things: At times awful dialogue (every exchange between Anakin and Padme, or Anakin and Obi-Wan[2], for example).

Palpatine's panto-villain transformation into Darth Sidius.

The fact that none of it is there. None of it. Zilch. Jeez, if I wanted to watch a CGI cartoon I'd have gone and seen Shrek again.

Midwife-droid [3].

Anakin's five second fall to the darkside. Anakin: 'Oh no, what have I done?' Palpatine: 'Embrace the dark side.' Anakin: 'Okay'. Excuse me? What happened there? Worst still is Lord Vader's three second rise to emperor at the end. Obi-Wan looks as confused as I felt.

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[1] Many of them better than my effort [link|[link]
[2] Oh, lets be honest, every exchange featuring Hayden Christensen.
[3] Who, I swear, at one point does an impression of Homer Simpson. Mmmm, birth.