Episode III (don't read if you don't want spoilers!!!)

Well then. Right now I'm about 75 minutes out of watching a 12:01 am viewing of Episode III, and all I can say is that the experience was really a mixed bag. I keep flipping between "I enjoyed it" and "Man, Lucas really messed up the prequel trilogy." Here are my thoughts on (possibly) the last Star Wars movie:

The Great:

• The graphics, especially the detail on the ships and the terrain. I literally let a "wow" slip out during the opening scene because I was amazed with how perfect the star cruisers looked. Keep in mind I saw the movie in a DLP theater, so that aided it some. Still, I think Lucas was finally able to achieve the level of detail and realism with computer graphics in this movie. He tried so hard in the remakes as well as Eps I & II, but technology just wasn't quite there yet. I'm particularly picky about fluid and realistic character animation - if it in any way doesn't look accurate it sticks out like a sore thumb - and in this movie I could barely tell what was CG and what was real. The dragon-thing that Obi-wan Kenobi rides - fucking awesome.
• Anakin's seduction to the dark side of the force out of love for his wife. I'm referring to the concept of it all, not how it was ultimately portrayed. I thought Lucas did a wonderful job of showing how a mature-yet-naive Anakin was willing to do anything to save his one love. How old is he supposed to be in this movie? I would have to guess early-20s. The decisions made by him are perfectly congruent with how a young adult male would act given the situation. I also liked how he was made out to be incredibly idealistic about life as a whole - it made is ultimate corruption that much more compelling, watching him try to hold onto his idealism while essentially destroying all good in the universe. Interesting side note: Palpatine reasoned to Anakin that in order to truly master the Force he needed to learn all sides of it (i.e. the dark side). Palpatine used the exact same reasoning to get Luke to become his pupil in Dark Force (the Dark Horse comic series). I can't help but wonder if Lucas borrowed from that...

The Good:

• Comic relief from Artoo. It took Lucas three movies, but he finally figured out how to do this one right. Well done.
• The consolidation power by (ultimately) the Emperor. It was cool to see this played out.
• The properly-done "tie-ins to Ep. IV." Some of my favorites: The use of Bail Organa's character, showing him helping Yoda escape (and thus foreshadowing him as one of the leaders of the rebellion). Also note the cruiser he used is the same type as the one that opens Ep. IV - clever touch. Owen & Beru watching the two suns of Tatooine setting while holding baby Luke. Tarkin as a bridge commander (seen w/ Vader and the Emperor observing the beginnings of the death star) - Cushing died in '94! How'd they do that?!? Excellent CG job - I recognized that character as Tarkin immediately, and I didn't realize it was a CG job until I read about it in an review later.

The Annoying

• The acting. For the most part, I thought the acting in this movie was sub-par. This must be due to the directing, as I consider most of the actors in this movie to be quite good - Natalie Portman, Samuel L., Ewan McGregor, among others. The dialog tended to come off a bit cheesy. I will say that Hayden Christensen did a much better job in this one.
• The rushing of the plot. What was annoying about this was that there were so many areas that deserved so much more time dedicated to their development. Unfortunately, there were so many plot-lines that Lucas had to rush through them in order to hit them all. Of course, that's his own damn fault for ending Ep. II with the start of the clone wars.
• The killing of the Jedi. They all fell way too easily. Notice that all (except Yoda) were taken by surprise. Bullshit. Jedi, especially not Jedi Masters, do NOT get taken by surprise. But this wasn't the real reason why I had a problem with this part. See Boba Fett below.
• The poorly done "tie-ins to Ep. IV." Chewbacca should not have been in Ep. III. Chewie was rescued from an imperial slave camp by Han Solo prior to Ep. IV. You're going to tell me he also just happened to be one of two wookies that helped Yoda escape? No way. They threw a couple other token original-trilogy characters as well - Wedge shouldn't have been in this movie either. The Death Star at the end of the movie shouldn't have been there. The second (larger) death star was built up to its point in ROTJ in less than five years. Ep. IV is around 20 years after Ep. III. Given that the Death Star was being tested for the first time in Ep. IV, there's no way construction on the Death Star started so soon.
• The reliance on lightsabers. Yeah, lightsabers are about the coolest weapon ever, but Lucas essentially made Jedis out to be swordsmen who happen to have some other minor powers. In reality, Jedis are closer to wizards than warriors, and Lucas didn't do justice to the rest of their powers. And while it was interesting, giving Yoda and Palpatine lightsabers ruined the mystique of their characters. In the original trilogy both came off as being so powerful as to be above their use. For those that read the Thrawn trilogy, C'Baoth was the same.

The Bad (and really bad):

• Vader's "Nooooo!!!!!" You know exactly what I'm talking about. That was straight-up low-class b-movie-esque. This may have been the single worst scene in the movie. If not, it was...
• Palpatine's "deforming." That was bullshit. Somehow his extended use of dark-side lightning led to his deforming? What's the explanation there, that he was so all-consumed with the dark-side at that moment that he deformed himself? No, that was poorly done. What should have been done would be to show subtle bits of "dark-side deforming" at the start of the movie, and ultimately show obvious signs of Palpatine's inner corruption by the end of the movie.
• "I love you!" "I love you more!" "No, I love you more." Lucas still can't write dialog...

The blatant disregard for the stories of the extended universe:

• I consider myself to be a huge Star Wars fan. I've watched the original trilogy countless times, mostly in middle school (when I could essentially recite the lines without much difficulty). I've read the Thrawn Trilogy, the Corillean Trilogy, and the Jedi Academy trilogy. Back in the day I regularly had conversations with friends about the history of the extended universe. What made the books I read so good was (among other things) they did such a good job of expanding the original trilogy characters, adding new characters, expanding and further explaining bits of the universe, and bit-by-bit revealing pieces of history of the Star Wars universe. On top of it all, they're all consistent with each other. Example: The Jedi Academy series goes into a good amount of detail about the history of the Sith. Knights of the Old Republic, which uses the history of the Sith largely in its story, stays consistent to that trilogy. It was well done in that sense (as well as many others). On that note, in order for the prequel trilogy to be considered "good" in my book, it has to remain consistent with the history and stories given in the expanded universe, and NOT rewrite the history. Yes Lucas does that in a couple of places. I'll list a few:
• Boba Fett. Where'd he go?!?! As the story goes, he's supposed to play a key role with Vader in exterminating the Jedi, yet he didn't appear at all in Ep. III. Weak.
• Anakin learning Padme was pregnant. This one can be debated some, but I'm pretty sure Anakin was never told that Padme was pregnant. And while we're on the topic, the "in your rage you killed Padme" solution was pretty poor.
• Kashyyyk's surface is inhabitable by wookies. There's all kinds of ridiculously killer animals down there, hence they live in tree villages. Yeah, this is a nit-picky thing (and the fact that I even know how to spell "Kashyyyk" shows how big of a Star Wars geek I am), but the fact is that any fan on my level (there are millions, if not tens-of-millions, guaranteed) could have told you that, and if Lucas had wanted to stay true to the current Star Wars universe all he would have had to have done would be to put together an advisory committee of 10 or so extended universe geeks and he could have stayed consistent without much difficulty. The problem, though, is that Lucas's ego about Star Wars gets in the way of this. What he refuses to accept is that the Star Wars universe is now much greater than his original vision. If he really cared about pleasing the fans he would have stayed consistent. But no, he had to do his thing.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It's definitely the best of the new three. However, all of these movie reviewers that are saying this is the best one since Empire Strikes Back (and some having the gall to say it's better than Empire) really need to cool their jets. Revenge of the Sith doesn't even come close to any of the original three.