Ok, my first post here! I thought I'd talk a bit about RotS. This isn't all I wanted to mention, but I'd like to see it again before I go more in depth about a few things. So here are just some specific observations I had about the movie.

Yay space battle! The whole starting part was so cool. I love how Obi & Ani's relationship was portrayed - it fit perfectly with all the EU stuff between the two movies. It almost made me wonder how they'd be fighting each other by the end of the movie. Even as Anakin started to turn dark, he was still loyal to Obi-Wan. Oh, and Anakin using his fighter's wing to knock the droids of Obi's ship? Dude, Anakin is nuts. o_o

A lot of the comic relief in this movie (which was mostly present during the opening sequence - the movie took a dark turn after that and there was only the odd thing (like Yoda owning Palpy's two guards) that was funny) involved battle droids. I preferred this kind of humour to Jar Jar or C-3P0 on Geonosis by far, but some of the things - like battle droids saying "roger roger" and "uh oh" incessantly - it's been done and it *might* have been a step over the line in this movie. It was funny, but in RotS it was almost ridiculous. It was hard to believe that someone would program droids to talk like that. Also, was it just me or did their voices sound less mechanical & monotone in this movie - almost cartoonish?

Overall, I liked General Grievous, but he seemed almost superfluous. Especially for people who hadn't followed the story between the movies, they'd probably be thinking "what the heck is his purpose?" ... Grievous really didn't *do* much in the movie. That's ok, because he didn't fit into the story very well - too much else going on - but he was much cooler in the cartoons. I loved his 'unbeatable attack' when fighting Obi-Wan though. I still love him, even if he wasn't used to his potential in the movie.

Regarding the whole Palpatine/Anakin/Jedi relationship - that was very intriguing. I've never viewed the Jedi in a bit of a negative light before, but in this movie I was able to, I could see how Anakin viewed them and how their actions might *not* be viewed in a positive light from some perspectives. This is one of the strongest parts of the movie, IMHO - the way it makes you think about who is responsible for Anakin fall to the dark side and to what degree. I don't know about anyone else, but I never considered this much after just seeing the OT... I guess I assumed it was all Anakin's choice and he should take full responsibility. But now I see how much of it was Palpatine's manipulation, and the way the Jedi treated him - while they did what was "right", their actions weren't always what Anakin needed, I think (and I definitely saw the truth of Yoda's statement about increasing Jedi arrogance in this movie). Hmm, very interesting. I need to see it at least once more before I can talk more about this.

I was surprised that it was Anakin who 'told' on Palpatine. And it was too ironic that Mace's distrust of Anakin and not letting him come confront Palpy was a cause of Anakin's fateful decision. The whole scene with Mace/Palpy/Anakin was amazing. I originally thought Anakin's pledging his life to the Sith happened too quickly, but I can understand why now that I've thought about it. That was just the point he realised he had to make a choice, he couldn't walk the line. And after his involvement in what happened to Mace, there wasn't any going back. So I have no problems with that anymore.

There were so many beautiful shots of Coruscant in the movie, especially the night ones. I love that city... err, planet.

I loved the way the Grievous' guards' electrostaffs (aka "sticks") appeared in the movie. Very very cool looking!

Order 66... even knowing what it was and approximately when it was coming - it was so sad. I don't hide the fact that I adore all the clones, so to see them turn on their own... devastating. I wanted to yell at them, "You're not bad guys, so stop killing the good guys!" *sigh* So much TKing in the movie. And the part with Anakin and the Jedi kids... I won't even go there. It's still hard for me to get my mind around the fact that so much happened, there was so much change, in such a short time.

I have more to say, but nothing I want to talk about until I've seen it again. I still can't remember specifics about the end of the movie (about Order 66 on) because it was a bit of a blur for me.

One thing I will say is I liked the part in the Duel where Obi & Ani are saber fighting in a small tunnel and their sabers hit the walls and sparked. It reminded me of playing a game. I also liked that some of the fights were in close quarters. In the other movies, most of the fights are in large open spaces, but it was cool to see Mace and Palpy going at it in a small room. Must make things more difficult!

Well, I'm hoping to see it again soon. Definitely by early next week. I hope to have the book read by then too.

I love Hyperspace so far. I've watched a bunch of the Making Episode III videos and the high-quality versions of Clone Wars. Yay!