okay. here're my opinions about the movie. and of course anyone's welcome to disagree.
I personally thought that it was better than Episode I and II, but I still think those two were still decent.
Tech:
I really liked the way the various ships and costumes tied in to the later series. You could see how the clone troopers' armor became the armor of the stormtroopers and scout troopers. The ARC-170 was a nice hint towards the X-wing, and the various TIE fighter precursors were nice as well. Then, there's the star destroyers of course, and the Tantive IV... just plain confused me. The Emperor's shuttle was a good hint towards the shuttle in Return of the Jedi (Lamda-class I think it was?). And, of course, the beginning of the construction of the Death Star at the end was, in my opinion, a good thing. On the other hand, R2-D2... how in the heck did he get so friggin fast?! He wasn't even that fast the any of the other episodes so why now?
Fall of the Jedi:
Very disappointing to me. Mace Windu's death was not a great way to let him die. He was there to arrest the Emperor, and up until Anakin showed up, he was doing just that. Then, for some strange reason, right when Anakin showed up, he took a more aggresive stance and wanted to kill Palpatine right then and there while Anakin was left trying to convince Windu to let him stand trial. Getting his arm chopped off and then blasted out of the window was not the way I had expected him to die. To be honest, I expected him to live and gather up the remaining Jedi to put up a resistance and be killed in battle later by Vader. After Anakin sees Palpatine send Mace out the window even though he was "too weak to fight back," he goes "Oh, no. What have I done?" and yet he still pledges allegiance to Palpatine even after seeing this deception. Ki-Adi-Mundi (for those who don't know, the white alien with the extra-long head and white ponytail at the top), shot in the back. SHOT IN THE BACK. by clone troopers! Didn't even give much of a fight. Plo Koon, at least he made it a little bit harder for the clone pilots to kill him, but I still find it hard to believe that clone troopers could shoot down a Jedi Master. Aayla Secura (I think it was her), I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't notice the clone troopers dropping behind and not sense the shots coming. Overall, it felt too short. Yes, after sleeping on it and waking up I felt very sad that the Jedi were killed but it wasn't just because they were killed but how. I felt like they were killed way too easily for Jedi. Worse yet, they were killed by clone troopers and not by Vader. I'm not sure about any one else, but I was under the impression that the extermination of the Jedi took years and not what seemed like just hours. And then, Palpatine is suddenly able to turn the Senate against the Jedi and making the Jedi the bad guys and him look like the good guys and no one seems to question it? Very disturbing.
Vader and Palpatine:
Wow, they give me the shivers. Not because of their "evilness" either. Anakin was pretty easily manipulated by Palpatine. I find it ironic that in acting on his dreams, he's the very reason Padme died. But back to what I was saying. Their transformations are what gives me the shivers. Palpatine's deformation because of the Force Lightning being sent back at him. Egh. Wonder if the Senate ever thought to consider how the Jedi could've possibly done that to him... Then Anakin gettin both of his legs hacked off. That didn't bother me, although it did catch me off guard. Should've listened to Obi-Wan, but noooo "You underestimate my power." I guess he didn't stop to consider that there was only really one place to land and the Obi-Wan knew it and was warning him. Oh well. Now when he got burned badly... youch. Seeing him with all those burns gave me the shivers as well.
Clone Troopers:
Very, very cool. Nice job showing transitions from the original clone trooper armor to the stormtrooper armor. But their betrayal, to me, was tragic. Here, they're genetically bred with having to take orders. They know no other life but war. They know they were bred for war and are expendable. Sometimes, they even get a chance to befriend Jedi, as with Obi-Wan and Cody(I think that was his name. I'm not quite sure though), only to be forced to carry out Order 66 and have no feelings about it. If you've read Republic Commando: Hard Contact and/or played Star Wars: Republic Commando, then it puts a whole new perspective to the characters you're introduced to. You find yet another Jedi who befriends and clone commando (Etain and Darman) only to have Order 66 be carried out during the movie. Speaking of Republic Commando, why in the heck do you have a clone trooper "contact" giving you orders instead of a Jedi like you're suppose to? Anyways, I digress. I wonder what eventually happens to the clones. Maybe some of them are stormtroopers in the original trilogy, but most of the stormtroopers are regular humans that go through the academy (as Kyle Katarn was one of them). I guess I could answer that question though myself because I remember reading somewhere (either it was a quote in Hard Contact or it was on the Star Wars website) that Kamino was invaded so I'm guessing it's safe to assume that the cloning facility was destroyed, but I would like a firm and definate answer to that question.
The whole Force ghosts thing:
Okay, everyone knows that Qui-Gon Jinn's body doesn't fade away while Ben's, Anakin's, and Yoda's do when they die. Then, some people complain about how Lucas answered that question in Episode III. Here, of course, is my take on it. Yoda, while very wise and old, didn't know about becoming one with the Force because of his traditional views on Jedi teachings. Qui-Gon was known to be rebellious in nature, and that was one of the main reasons he wasn't on the council. I think, because he didn't have traditional views about the Force, he able to learn about things in the Force that a traditional Jedi might have viewed as too close to the dark side although they really weren't. Either that, or it could be that his will to teach Anakin in the ways of the Force was so strong that he was able to retain some sort of method to speak with other Force users. He might've discovered how to speak through the force but Yoda could've perfected it. Remember that he's only able to speak in Episode II and not show up as a ghost whereas Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Anakin do show up as ghosts. So maybe Yoda found out that you could speak through the Force and works to find a way to appear as a ghost. Then, he teaches this to Obi-Wan. Now, as for Anakin. I believe that after he killed Obi-Wan, he was perplexed as to why there was no body. Being curious and wanting to have all the power he could, (Ben's lasts words were "I will become more powerful than you could ever imagine.") he wanted to find out this power for himself. And probably through meditation, he discovered this secret on his own. And that's how his body disappeared, and he came up as a ghost. This is just a theory, and like I said, you're welcome to disagree.
Anyways, those were just plot elements that I decided to point out and discuss. In the end, I really liked the movie, and I plan to get it when it comes out on DVD (or I might wait and get the box set if one ever comes out). It does a good job tying in the prequels with the originals. But, it does bring up new questions for me that I wish could be answered. But, these were just my thoughts on the movie and how I felt about it. If someone hadn't seen it and asked me to see it again, then I'd probably say yes and go see it again because it was worth my money.
