Thoughts on the Sith

Overall, I liked it. Much better movie than the first two prequels. Not without its problems/flaws, of course, some of which I'll discourse on, as well as things I liked:

SPOILERS FOLLOW:

• Let's get this out of the way: Leia in ROTJ has NO REASON to think she's adopted, so when Luke asks her about her real mother she can easily be thinking of Ms. Organa. This is NOT AN ISSUE - PLEASE MOVE ON.
• Chewie - was he necessary? No. Did I like seeing him? Absolutely.
• Grievous - In case you missed 'em, Grievous gets his chest cavity Force-crushed by Mace Windu in the last of the animated Clone Wars shorts. That's why he's coughing and wheezing as ROTS opens.
• More Grievous - I was hoping for so much from this character, he had such a cool looking visual and he's the Alpha-version Vader. DAMN HE WAS COOL!
• Okay, so Episode II set us up for the whole Clone-troopers-are-stormtroopers and Separatists-are-really-the-proto-Rebellion, but the execution of Order 66 was still cool.
• FINALLY a reason why none of the Jedi disappear in this movie, and nicely tying up Vader's confusion in Episode IV when Kenobi does it. Seeing Qui-Gon would've been niec, though.
• Boga - When I saw this thing in spoilers and in toys, I thought it was stupid, but in the film it reminded me of one of my birds. Very sad when it gets shot. :(
• Acting - well, it wasn't the best, but that's not why you go see a Star Wars film, honestly. Lucas has admitted he doesn't know who to get the most out of his actors.
• Mace Windu - I have to admit I never cared much for the character until now. But man, Mace Windu is a bad man.
• By the same token, the Jedi who went with Windu to arrest Palpatine? Chumps; even my boy Kit Fisto, who went out like a punk.
• Ian McDiarmid - when he's playing Palpatine, he's good; as Sidious, though, he was waay over the top, at least IMO. Some nicely done scenes where he's tempting Anakin, though.
• Darth Plagueis as Father o' Anakin - well, I suppose. Kind of ambivalent about this, although I guess it finally gives us some resolution.
• R2-D2 - stole the show. He was great in just about every scene he was in.
• Opening space scene - wow. The ARC Fighter is now one of my favorite Star Wars vehicles. Loved that the X-wing prototype was flown by clones - stormtrooper prototypes - and later used to polish off Jedi in the new model Jedi Starfighters - which are TIE prototypes.
• Dunno why Obi-Wan couldn't just Force push the droids off his ship, though.
• Glad to see that we get some more of the evidence for why Obi-Wan calls Anakin the "greatest starfighter pilot in the galaxy" in ANH. Not enough of that in ATOC, in my opinion, and the crapfest that was the space battle at the end of TPM proved nothing to me.
• Lightsaber battles were all cool, including ones with the aforementioned Grievous.
• LAVA BATTLE - 'nuff said.

Overall, it was definitely the best of the prequels, but not as good of a movie as The Empire Strikes Back. Time will tell how much I like it in comparison to the others. Have to see it again...