We went to see it Memorial Day Weekend. When the screen goes dark, the fanfare starts and the words "Star Wars" appear, it still gives me chills, and I remember how amazing the original movie was. Not from a plot or dialogue standpoint, but it was the first time that we saw a spaghetti western set in space. And the effects! Wow!

The effects are still there, and that is certainly one reason to go see this movie. George Lucas does know how to blow up stuff. But since this is my blog, I shall put forth the nits that I've picked on Episode III - your mileage may vary, but overall I'd have to give it a C.

1. I didn't enjoy the Anakin-and-Obi Wan- flying-through-the-initial-battle scene for the same reason I didn't enjoy their pursuit of the assasin in Episode II: there's so much going on in the scene that my visual perception is over-loaded. There's just so much effects eye candy that I found myself tuning it out rather than being drawn into their situation.

2. That said, the light saber fights are still very cool. As are many of the other battle scenes, although the part where Obi Wan is riding an overgrown housecat-lizard around a quarry didn't do it for me.

3. General Greivous. I assume the wheezing is to remind us that he is not entirely a machine, but puh-leeze. And at the end of his final battle with Obi Wan, this seemingly invincible 95% droid-thing turns out to have a soft, exploitable underbelly that is easily exposed and allows him to be destroyed. Hello? Who designed this guy?

4. Padme's character is completely lame. She really goes downhill from the first movie where she is the Queen, demoted to Senator in EpII and is now just wimpy, weak and whining. And apparently her pregnancy is affecting her fashion sense: what up with the brown half helmet she wears in one scene? Most of her garb was pretty appropriate for a moderately pregnant woman, until she decided to dress up in a half tunic and tights for her trip to the volcano planet. Errr, right.

Oh, and by the way, twins born four months prematurely do not look like those full term healthy babies that they showed on the screen. Nope, not at all.

5. The Jedis. Anakin Skywalker has been the Jedis' "Chosen One" since he was born and yet these guys do nothing but alienate him. They're worried that they can't trust him and he's too close to Palpatine, so they do what? Leave him to his own devices and have him spend loads of quality time alone with the suspicious senator. When he is appointed to the Jedi Council they diss him by not making him a Jedi Master. Now, I'm not sure he was really ready for that step either, but seriously, having Mace Windu talking down to him about it was probably not the right way to handle it.

I should actually say that my real problem is not with the Jedis, but with the Jedi Council. The come across as extremely arrogant - rather French , actually - and while I think that they ultimately are playing on the side of good, this movie was all about them protecting their power. They ask Anakin to do something rather shady - spy on Senator Palpatine - all while they are treating him like their tag-along kid brother. And once Palpatine's true identity is uncovered, Anakin points out to Mace that he shouldn't kill him because it's not the Jedi way - but Mace doesn't listen. Gee, I wonder why Anakin was confused.

6. Obi Wan. Aside from not actually being a hugely effective Jedi fighter - except with Greivous - I actually liked Obi Wan better in this film. Right up to the part on Mustafar where Anakin is lying there like the Black Knight from the Holy Grail - amputated and burning - and Obi Wan leaves him there. I'm not suggesting that he should have saved him, but I think he should remembered that even though Obi Wan was not responsible for all of the things that happened or Anakin's decisions, he has had some hand in it. Regardless of what Anakin had become, the friendship of the past should have let Obi Wan put him out of his misery. I mean, burning does not seem to be a very humane way to let someone die. A quick flick of the light saber and that would have ended the pain.

But of course Anakin has to live and become Darth Vader, so I suppose there wasn't a lot of choice about it. But I feel differently about Obi Wan now.

7. I almost didn't mention this, but . . . well, the dialogue. Although the dialogue in EpIV was terrible too - "Laugh it up, furball" - but the delivery of bad dialogue in the prequel movies is grating rather than endearing as it is in the three originals. I think part of the problem is that both Obi Wan and Anakin were trying to play their characters in a way that when we view all six movies together, the speech patterns will sound similar. But Ewan McGregor just doesn't sound like Alec Guiness and Hayden Christiansen certainly doesn't sound like James Earl Jones. It probably would have come off better if they hadn't tried to force their performances into the future inflections. A whiney teenaged Anakin would have been better than a whiney, stilted, wooden teenaged Anakin trying to parse like a big black man with a CNN voice.

8. After the first chill of the opening credits, I didn't really feel "chilled" again. The movie went through its paces. But the betrayal of the Jedi was a strong moment. When the clone soldiers turn on the Jedi and slaughter them, that was very powerful. And the murder of the padawans at the Jedi Temple - that was an almost unexpected emotional moment.

Finally, it all felt rushed. I know there were a lot of loose ends to be tied up, but the storyline is just so tangled, it seemed that characters were making brief cameos, rather than really pulling us into the scenes. Even the transition of Anakin to the dark side - kind of a key feature of this movie, I think - was hurried. He kills Mace Windu and cries, "What have I done?". His next line is "I shall do whatever you ask, master," or something to that effect. Hello? Maybe some reflection?

Padme's birth/death scene was also rushed:

Doctor Droid: "She has lost the will to live."
Padme: "Argh. Ahhh. Ow."
Luke: "Waa."
Padme: "Luke."
Padme: "Argh. Ahhh. Ow."
Leia: "Waa."
Padme: "Leia."
Padme: (Dies)

First Doctor: And frighten it!
First Doctor: And the rough towels!
First Doctor: Show it to the mother.
First and Second Doctors: That's enough! Right. Sedate her, number the child. Measure it, blood type it and... *isolate* it.

This type of movie should not have me thinking of Monty Python. Not once, let alone twice.

I rarely think that 2 1/2 hours long movies should be longer, but there was obviously so much more to the story that needed to be told. I'm hoping that, like Lord of the Rings, Lucas releases an extended cut version that will help some of the pacing smooth out.

Of course, we won't see that in the market for many years, as George milks the merchandising of every possible aspect of the film.