Garth Franklin makes an admirable attempt to provide a balanced review of REVENGE OF THE SITH on the Dark Horizon website. The numerous unignorable flaws force him to do a fari amount of talking out of both sides of his mouth; nevertheless, he manages to do a good job of addressing both strengths and weaknesses in the film.

After calling SITH "refreshingly good," Garth goes on to use words like "hokey" and "stilted." My favorite line perhaps is this one:

"Whilst the acting, story, and humour remains clunky and flat, SITH is an enjoyable spectacle with glossy visual and a refreshingly dark and sinister tone."

Then after going on to say that the acting is problematic, that the romance just as bad as in ATTACK OF THE CLONES, that Anakin's transformation into Dark Vader is a letdown, and that the Obi-Wan/Anakin lava duel is ridiculous, Franklin winds chastising critical viewers who might "exaggerate the problems which they would otherwise ignore in other movies this summer."

Frankly, based on the evidence of Franklin's own review, it doesn't sound as if any exaggeration is necessary to notice flaws in this movie.

To be fair, Franklin also finds plenty to praise in terms of the action special effects, insisting that the film is a tightly structured and enjoyable popcorn summer sci-fi movie. He concludes:

"...it's the only one of the [prequel] trilogy that actually works as both a good Summer movie and a solid sci-fi movie in its own right. It's a shame that just as the STAR WARS universe is finally getting interesting again, it has to go away."