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• Sensibility: Obi-Wan dropping in on General Grevious feels ridiculous, his miraculous survival from a great fall, an insane crash landing, and a curious act of violence on Padme all feel a bit far-fetched, even in this fantastical universe. The trap set-up around the captured chancellor near the beginning feels a bit odd, but could be chalked up to the Palpatine's behind-the-scenes planning.
• Cinematography: CGI continues to improve on the previous films. However, there are a few scenes where you can see background characters that are far less rendered/polished than the primary characters. The film makes up for this though with some incredible framing and shot-design in many scenes, includingg the ransack of the Jedi temple, the combat on Mustafar, and the construction of Vader's suit. Once again, the screen wipe transitions are jarring to the eye.
• Energy: Highlight of the prequels by far. The violence, darkness, and deception all come to a forefront. This film does the best job of all the prequels of holding the tension outside of fight sequences. In fact, one of the most interesting scenes in the film is just a conversation between Anakin and the chancellor about death and the dark-side.
• Narrative: This film is quintessential Star Wars. So many of the most iconic characters and images are from this film. General Grevious is such an interesting character and it's a shame we don't get to see more of him. The transition from chancellor to emperor is captivating and paralleled by the growing feelings of darkness that swarm the end of the film. This film is the climax of all the expositionary build-up of the previous two films and it doesn't hold back. Only weakness is in the beginning sequence where the two jedi recovery mission seems reckless and is met with what feels like lazy writing in the ray-shield capture.
• T-Points: The film received five bonus points: one for a sequence of shots where Anakin and Padme are looking across the city skyline to each other from a distance, one for the General Grevious fight sequence with Obi-Wan, one for the death of Mace Windu, one for the iconic fight sequence between Anakin and Obi-Wan on Mustafar, and one for the unforgettable construction and first breath from the masked Darth Vader.

This film was so big for me as a kid; I remember being so eager to see it even though my parents were hesitant to let me watch it until they felt I was old enough. So, am I biased? Absolutely. Do I still, regardless of all the nostalgia, think this is one of the great sci-fi films? Absolutely.

Number of Watches: 2