Movie review -- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

I thought I was going to be off, so the tickets were booked for Thursday night, with plans for dinner before. Unfortunately, everything went a little crazy down at the lab, and I was only able to leave Jurong Island at 8:30 PM (read: last bus). My apologies to K, whom I made wait for two whole hours. The only consolation is that I managed to get there in time for the movie, with time enough to grab a hot dog for dinner.

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How is it that no one told George Lucas to fire his casting director? Half an hour into the show, I was reminded of the worst part of Star Wars; I struggled to come up with a worse actor than Hayden Christenson. This continued to plague me throughout the entire duration of the movie, and I finally had to concede that he really is peerless in this respect. When he tries to be menacing, he ends up looking like he's going to burst into laughter; when he tries to be tender, he looks like a psychotic murderer. I just don't get it.

But I did boo-hoo at the scene where he and Obi-Wan fought. I mean, "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you." Who doesn't cry at seeing the tears strewn down Ewan's face? But as I was saying, that was Hayden's best moment -- I guess it helped that all he did was be a charred mess.

I thought Anakin succumbed too abruptly (but that might have been because of the bad acting), but other than that, I liked it. It was absolutely riveting, even without the extended fighting scenes of Episodes I and II; Episode III did what it set out to do perfectly -- it gave closure.

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HW (in response to my movie invitation): "What's Star Wars about?"

Was he really expecting me to explain it to him?

Me: "I assume that means you haven't watched Episodes I, II, IV, V, VI."