re: Revenge of the Sith is a good movie

RotS had the bones of a good movie, but it suffered from what others in this thread have already pointed out - that Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side is absolutely not believable. His thought process over the course of RotS is:

1. I’m worried about Padme. I think she might die.
2. There’s a Dark Side Force power that can prevent death? Color me intrigued.
3. Woah, Mace Windu, stop killing Darth Sidious before I can find out more about this whole “power over death” thing!
4. Well, shite. Guess I must be a bad guy now. TIME TO START MURDERING CHILDREN

Anakin should have been set up in the first two movies of the trilogy as a troubled kid who is torn between doing the right thing and just using his awesome Force ability to make people do what he thinks is best for everyone. That should have been the carrot that Palpatine used to make him turn to the Dark Side. As the galaxy descended into chaos due to the Clone Wars, the Senate should have been shown making questionable decisions in the name of the people - refusing to ratify the creation of a Republic military, or something similar, while Dooku and his droid army ran rampant in the outer systems. The Jedi, of course, would stand up to protect the Senate’s authority, while Chancellor Palpatine fumed to Anakin about his inability to effectively answer the Separatist threat, subtly guiding Anakin to start thinking about how much better things would be if the Senate could be gotten out of the way so that those who really knew how things ought to be could step in and get shite done. One thing would lead to another until Anakin finally succumbed to “ends justifying the means” thinking and became Vader. That would not only give Vader an air of tragedy as someone who wanted to do good but got lost along the way, but also justify him from a certain point of view, and set up his eventual redemption. Palpatine may be evil through and through, but Vader started with good intentions and simply let his pride and lust for control blind him to what he was doing. By the time he realized how far he had gone, he believed that he was irretrievably lost - “It is too late for me, my son.” Luke redeemed him by helping him see that while he couldn’t undo the things he had done, he could at least try to set things right going forward.

One of the biggest problems with the prequels is how much of a weak bitch Anakin is the entire time through the end of Rots. It's why nothing about those movies makes sense.

He should've been a very powerful and conflicted person. Instead he's weak and just pathetic and never really conflicted at all.

When you watch the animated Clone Wars and Rebels his character has depth and intellegnce and raw power and conflict. He's a full fledged Jedi, he has his own padawan, he's respected by others, etc... He's an incredible character and when he turns its earned and you feel it.

In the Prequel Trilogy he's just a stupid worthless kid and then a weak pathetic whiny adult no one ever gives a shite about and he never accomplishes or proves anything.

Somehow this weak pathetic dude who loses every fight he's ever in becomes the most feared Sith and hunts down and kills all the other Jedi? No chance.

He should've been a powerful Jedi. He should've been respected and feared. And his turn should've been either perfect deception by Palpatine or a tragic fall from grace due to lust for power or a desire to rule.

That opening battle in ROTS It had my heart pounding when I saw it on the big screen.

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It had some good scenes, but Anakins turn to the dark side is not believable

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PALPATINE:HURR DURR ANAKIN IF YOU'VE BEEN DREAMING OF PADME DYING I CAN TEACH YOU THE DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE TO SAVE HER

ANAKIN: WELL frick THE TRAINING I'VE HAD MY ENTIRE LIFE TO TEACH ME HOW THE DARK SIDE DECEIVES, I BELIEVE THAT CUZ I WANT TO KEEP BANGING NATALIE PORTMAN

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It had some good scenes, but Anakins turn to the dark side is not believable.

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Yes it is. Women can drive men to do some crazy things.

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1. I’m worried about Padme. I think she might die.
2. There’s a Dark Side Force power that can prevent death? Color me intrigued.
3. Woah, Mace Windu, stop killing Darth Sidious before I can find out more about this whole “power over death” thing!
4. Well, shite. Guess I must be a bad guy now. TIME TO START MURDERING CHILDREN

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And THAT'S where they lost me.

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Anakin should have been set up in the first two movies of the trilogy as a troubled kid who is torn between doing the right thing and just using his awesome Force ability to make people do what he thinks is best for everyone.

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This is one of the major issues, IMO. The first two movies basically ignore planting the seeds of Anakin's turn in favor of politics and a wooden love story.

He enters the third movie as basically a good guy and then Lucas has to 180 his character in a single movie.

Side note, I also dislike how blatantly obvious it is that Palpatine is a bad guy in the prequels. None of the Jedi seem to notice a guy who's oozing bad guy out of every pore.

That’s the point I was trying to make in my long semi-drunk post above. Anakin’s fear and hate he supposedly had his whole life is nowhere to be found in the trilogy. Fear of what? Losing Padme or his mom? That’s a pretty normal fear everyone has. Fear of failure? Despite the whole “he might be the Chosen One” thing, I don’t remember any undue pressure being placed on him by the Jedi. Fear of misusing his immense power? Nope, he honestly doesn’t seem much stronger than an average Jedi. Fear of the Dark Side? He seems pretty oblivious to the immediate threat it poses until Palpatine finally comes out and basically tells him, “Look, you clod, I’m a fricking Sith Lord, ok?” at which point Anakin seems more intrigued than afraid. As for hate, the only thing we know for sure that he hates is sand, and frankly that’s a pretty poor motivation for blowing up planets and killing children. Anakin is never presented as someone walking along a knife’s edge between good and evil the way he should have been, so when he does turn to the Dark Side, it comes across as something of a snap decision that he then feels bound by for the rest of his life. Vader should be his inner darkness unleashed, but instead it seems more like a costume he feels like he has to wear because one time he listened to an old dude tell a story.

This all goes back to the age of the viewer.

They should have ended the franchise with this one.