Okay, there are spoilers ahead. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, skip the rest of this review. All I’ll give away is the obvious: everyone you don’t see in the original trilogy dies here. Horribly. This isn’t a fun movie, but yes, it’s worth seeing if you have any interest in Star Wars.
You’ve been warned.
Of course, it opens with a huge space-battle. Like so many other things in the prequels, it looks great, but in context, it doesn’t serve any real purpose, and there’s no sense of urgency or risk. Seriously, cut out the whole battle/rescue sequence, and the plot doesn’t falter a bit. It’s just there as a huge, loud and confusing overture. Count Dooku shows up, and promptly gets cut down by Anakin. Again, no emotional investment whatsoever. No,”you cut off my hand, now it’s payback,” no witty banter from the Count, just a flashy lightsaber battle and off with his head. Continued...