Star Wars III: Return Of the Wow

I had the pleasure of seeing the new Star Wars movie this afternoon. While quite enjoyable, this movie had to tie up a lot of loose ends and it managed to successfully do so. However, there were some problems that Lucas could not overcome.

Firstly, Hayden Christensen still cannot act. While his performance was an improvement over the previous one, he still delivers his lines like a third stand-in performer in a high school play. He is actually better in films without the Star Wars moniker. His "Nooooo" scene at the end of the film,complete with exaggerated hand gestures, is just awful. The scene would have been better with him asking about Padme, learning of her demise, and then coldly asking what his master's bidding was. This unintentionally painful scene leads me to my next point.

George Lucas writes horrible dialog. People do not actually speak to one another like they do in a Star Wars film. Natalie Portman, a talented actress, sounded like an absolute moron in Star Wars II. The lines between the two fateful lovers are painful to listen to. I don't remember the original films, IV, V, and VI having such bad dialog. Then again, as a whole, those films had much better actors.

One thing that I could not understand was how Padme died. They explained that it was of a broken heart. You mean to tell me that in this futuristic time, despite all sorts of medical advances(robotic prosthetics, the Force, etc.) that a perfectly healthy person, in a hospital surrounded by medical droids, can just up and die? It's 2005 and they could keep Terri Schiavo alive seemingly forever.

I thought this was a wonderful movie. It has already set box office records for opening day and I can imagine will be the highest grossing movie of all time. It's sad that there are to be no more movies in a galaxy, far, far away. Lucas has scrapped the plans of making episodes VII, VIII, and IX. Tragic, as there would be so much Boba Fett.