I saw RotS in the theater as a kid. It was my first time being truly hyped on my way to a movie theater, and the whole experience was very memorable for me, and I’m glad I got to see the movie that way.

But it’s not a very good movie. The writing is sloppy, and the story is often rushed and overstuffed. I enjoy the hell out of it. But the sentiment shared by a lot of Gen Z’ers that RotS is some sort of magnificent work of fiction just isn’t backed up by reality. The film has become overrated, at least on places like Reddit and in the Star Wars fandom, in general.

The movie has the big emotional payoffs that everyone had been anticipating, and it’s a more straightforward story than the other two prequels, so for a lot of people, that puts it way above the other two. But I’m not so sure about that now. In fact, you could definitely argue that TPM is the better made film, overall.

I read the novelization of RotS, and it was fantastic. Much better than the movie it’s based on. It made me realize that RotS is like the embryo of a great film, but it simply didn’t get enough time in the revision stage. Time that it badly needed.