I immediately lost interest when they brought up miniature effects and the ring theory. “The prequels used more sets and miniatures than the originals”, gee no kidding. You can easily tell just by looking at TPM especially that on-location shooting, sets and miniature effects are being used, but that doesn’t mean jack shit in the long run. The only thing I think of when I see these well crafted miniatures is “Gee, if only the rest of the movie was this consistent in quality”. Granted, there were shots in all of the prequels I never knew were miniatures, but so what? Good looking effects are not what will automatically make me forgive the terrible writing. And then of cause the ring theory, the “get out of a sticky situation with OT fans for free ticket”. Not everything needs to be connected as part of some kind of master plan, if anything this only makes everything become more watered-down and predictable. Revenge of The Sith in particular is always given a pass by fans for some reason, and I think I have the answer. It’s not because the characters are likable, charismatic or you want them to accomplish their goals, neither is it because the story itself is engaging. They like it because there’s 5 lightsaber duels (Only 2 of which are important to the plot), a good score and a dark, edgy plot. ROTS is a predictable mess of a movie and the only reason I feel as if the plot was made as serious as it was, was as a response to the negative reception of the bumbling, childish tone of TPM and the romantic, political tone of ATOC. If anything it tried to do what ROTJ did by mixing dark, emotional, comedic and adventurous elements into one story, and as with ROTJ, it failed miserably at it.
