In preparation to see Revenge of the Sith sometime soon, I’ve dug out the old DVDs and watched them.

Yikes, is The Phantom Menace ever a rotten movie!

If anyone ever tries to tell you that good special effects make a good movie, sit him down and show him — oh, Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights — back-to-back with The Phantom Menace. And the next time he dares to open his mouth to say something about movies, say two or three years from now, offer to show him those two movies again.

Attack of the Clones is much, much better, but it’s not very good, either.

Years ago, when Return of the Jedi came out, and I saw those adorable Ewoks, I knew that whatever George Lucas’ original vision might have been, the movie had been tailored to sell teddy bears. And when I first saw The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, I knew those movies were not so much written, as designed — built around ideas for video games.

There was one glimmer of a thought in Attack of the Clones: that it’s possible to feel completely justified in doing something terrible, but that sense of justification does not excuse the terrible deed. The new movie is getting a lot of attention for commenting on current events, but I think that started here.

Nevertheless, I was ready to skip Revenge of the Sith entirely, but I won’t. The reviewers have been mostly positive, and surprised.

Andy Ihnatko likes it:

Unbelievable. Unbelievable!

“Revenge Of The Sith” is clearly the best of all the Prequels, but that sounds like faint praise at best and sarcasm at worst. It’s better than “Return Of The Jedi” and I have to ask myself if it isn’t better than “A New Hope,” too. When I come down off the endorphin buzz, I’ll probably conclude that no, it isn’t, but the fact that I even have to consider such a question says a whole hell of a lot about this movie.

So I’m going to see it soon. I hope I’ll like it, too.