And the Oscar goes to: R2D2

No, I haven't left the house to go see it in the cinema, I watched the leaked Star Wars work print after coming home from work today.

I agree with what most people have been saying: best of the three.

The rollercoaster start was exciting and funny in places too. Too bad Hayden Christensen has no comic timing at all. Those Jedi powers are godlike, how else could Yoda sense 'much fear' in this lad? Never mind the bad acting, it's the lack of joy and the glaring absence of passion in his performance. He's good at the athletic stuff -- great with the lightsabre. Those are the sequences I like best anyway -- I didn't grow up on Errol Flynn for nothing.

Leave the acting to R2D2. I'm serious, that bit at the start where he has to stop and start the elevators -- that little droid had a lot more character than, um, let's say Natalie Portman. Yawn. Seemed such a strong lady in Part I. Now she's got her man she's dependent and weak and bloody annoying.

McGregor's believable as always. I do believe he tries to emulate or hint at what Alec Guinness did with the character, especially at the start of the film, in the accent, even. And he kept his troosers on, thank god.

I'm never keen on the politics of things, so the middle of the film with the meetings and war kind of sagged for me. I was watching it on TV and you could have predicted the moment I got up to make tea: the Anakin / Padmé scenes. Then came the high drama part, the turning to the daaaaark side and it all got a bit campy, especially the fight between Palapatine and Windu. Seriously, what *was* that? At other times I felt as if I'd walked into a showing of Return of the King. Dragons? Oozing lava? Then there was what seemed to be a rather heavy handed anti-current-administration vibe. Not sure what to think of it, it felt clumsy, though I appreciate the leaning.

Anyway, a good swashbuckling 'finale' to the franchise. Might even go see it on the big screen.