It would be nice to think that the infusion of new blood into the Star Wars franchise, in the form of director Dave Filoni and screenwriters Henry Gilroy, Steven Melching, and Scott Murphy, would reinvigorate the series and correct the shortcomings of some of the previous installments. It would be nice to think that the introduction of animation to the mix might create new opportunities for the storytelling aesthetic. It would be nice to think a lot of things, but this latest installment suffers from all of the less appealing qualities of its predecessors and benefits from few of their strengths.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes place in between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and somewhere in the middle of the Clone Wars television series that appeared on The Cartoon Network from 2003-2005. A newsreel style introduction (unfortunately reminiscent of Starship Troopers) explains that the eponymous conflict between the Republic's Jedi-led clone army and the Separatist droid army led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) is well underway. While Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) fight a campaign on a distant planet, Anakin is saddled with a pupil, the Padawan Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) who quickly proves herself to be plucky and impetuous in a way that's supposed to be endearing but is actually grating. (You're going to call Anakin "Skyguy?" Really?)

No sooner have Obi-Wan and Anakin completed their mission than they are assigned to rescue the kidnapped son of interstellar gangster Jabba the Hutt (Kevin Michael Richardson) in hopes of winning his favor, which is crucial to the war effort. All is, of course, not as it seems and the pair are soon drawn into a dark conflict with Dooku, his deadly apprentice Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman), and lots and lots of droids. Excitement fails to ensue.

Part of the problem is the chronically flat dialogue, which has plagued the series ever since Lawrence Kasdan stopped having any input on that front. It's hard to tell how much of the voice acting seems deflated because of the uninspired lines, but it's equally dead. The CG/anime mash-up animation works remarkably well for rendering droids and spaceships, but seems awkward on the glassy-eyed human and humanoid leads, making the performances seem even more wooden. The graphics in the upcoming The Force Unleashed video game look more compelling.

Where stilted acting and hammy dialogue are nothing new for the series, a lack of vision is. Though some sequences still dazzle, such as a vertical battle up the side of a mountain, overall the look and scope of this installment is outmatched by the 2D animated series that preceded it. The action in that show displayed a far greater degree of imagination and appropriated the anime style more cleanly.

This installment also manages to omit interesting characters while adding unnecessarily annoying new ones. General Grievous, put to formidable use in the prior animated series, is absent, while a new member of the Hutt clan is introduced to baffling effect. Ziro the Hutt (Corey Burton) is Truman Capote in Hutt form and is about as good an idea as that sounds.

In watching The Clone Wars, one is filled with the overwhelming urge to grab George Lucas, thank him for his immeasurable contribution to the science fiction canon, and ask him politely to cut it out already. This will not work, however, as The Clone Wars is scheduled to become a 3D animated TV series this fall. Oh, the midichlorians...

The DVD includes commentary from Filoni and other crew members, plus a second disc previewing the TV series, six making-of featurettes, footage of the voice sessions, deleted scenes, and more.

Although miles better than the previous two, when held up against the original trilogy it still left me feeling under whelmed. Whether that it symptomatic of today's era when big budget spectacles are two-a-penny I'm not sure.

I'll start with the opening space battle in the film. Nobody can say it wasn't visually effective. You jump straight in to the midst of a battle. Starfighters zig zagging across every corner of the screen, explosions left right and centre, Laser fire criss crossing the cold vacuum of space, Obi-Wan and Anakin in a frenzied dogfight with the droid attack fleet. Probably millions spent on the scene and endless manpower dedicated to its completion. Visually stunning yet souless. Give me the sequence in ROTJ anyday, when in the cold stillness of space the rebel fleet come out of Hyperspace, ready to mount an attack on the Deathstar. The Imperial fleet hangs back in the distance and you know you are in for the mother of all space battles. You can't buy that sort of anticipation, that sort of "Oh My God, I can't wait for what's gonna happen next" feeling. This is what Star Wars is about A grand spectacle with feeling, not just a grand spectacle.

Then we have how easy some of the main protagonists go down. Count Dooku goes from a Sith lord capable of fending off Obi-wan and Anakin in AOTC to someone is easily taken down by Anakin with the shimmy of a lightsabre. I don't see how his skills and powers have improved so much from the second movie but we are told by Anakin that they have and we should just accept it. In the return fight between Luke and Vader in ROTJ. You sense Luke is empowered by the knowledge he has of Vader and a momentary lapse into anger by Luke allows him to bear down on Vader and bring him to the ground. A believable turnaround of events considering what has gone on before. Not so in the rematch between Anakin and Dooku. Considering Dooku manages to immobilise Obi-wan quite easily once again and fought Yoda to an arguable draw in AOTC's, the swiftness by which Anakin dispatches Dooku is a bit stretched.

Then we have the romance. Portman is a great actress, you'll get no arguments from me. Apparently the rumour is Hayden can act as well judging by the reviews he had for Shattered Glass. Why is it then that when they share lines and romantic scenes together they can't muster an iota of the chemistry that Han an Leia had in the original trilogy. Anakin comes across as a simplistic figure, with simple lines. I believe the problem is Hayden always over compensates when he reads out his lines. Understandably he's trying to think how Lucas would want them to be delivered. Is he thinking, "How does saying I love you Padme in the Star Wars universe where there is a galactic war going, differ from saying I love you in the real world". What should I enunciate, what depth of feeling should I squeeze from my character, a tragic hero figure destined for a fall from grace. My feeling is that he shouldn't. Yes Star Wars is set in a galaxy far far away but I love you is still I love you no matter what context you put it in. That's why when the inevitable romantic scenes come along they still leave you feeling flatter than a pancake run over by a bulldozer. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher to me gave a very adult take on the relationship between Han and Leia. It was basically scoundrel meets women way out of his league and lets forget the hell out of all this sci-fi stuff and just act how we feel it should be. Result - classic scenes to watch again and again. Lucas unfortunately hasn't remembered this lesson in time for the final film.

The events that lead Anakin's turn to the darkside are also difficult to accept. Yes we know his transformation must be complete by the end of the movie less we find ourselves potentially forking out for the "Fourth in the Trilogy © Orange Cinema ad". But the excuse of needing knowledge to save his wife and keeping alive the only person who has this knowledge is the premise for an alarmingly rapid descent into the dark side. Sure he murders the Tusken Raiders in AOTC's without a second thought but that was shortly after his beaten mother died in his arms. After lopping Mace Windu's hand off and allowing the Emporer to lighting blast the bad-ass Jedi into the Corsucant night sky, there is not a hint of remorse by Anakin. A rapid betrayal of the Jedi, the murder of the Jedi children quickly follows, yet hours before he's still Anakin the Jedi. Sure a little confused, hugely frustrated but not a child-killer. Much more believable would be something like the murder of Padme in front of his very eyes and the Jedi complicity in this which might enable Anakin to turn against everything he believed in so quickly. Yet it is only the hint of great power he might be able to achieve under Palpatine tutelage that triggers Anakin to turn against everyone he loves, in an instant.

Oh and the final fight scene, Apparently doesn't matter if you are the chosen one. It's all about height. If you have the "Higher Ground" then the fight's yours. Someone should try telling that to the two pieces of Darth Maul laying at the bottom of a power shaft somewhere.

Released in May 2005, the 28th anniversary of the release of Star Wars, and the first of the films to receive a PG-13 rating; showed how Luke Skywalker's father, Anakin (Christensen), went from a sweet-natured slave boy to the galaxy-crushing villain Darth Vader. The Sith was the evil sect that corrupted Anakin by drawing him into the dark side of the Force - the cosmic power and living energy field that balances the universe; the best scene = the opening space battle

I saw every Star Wars episode except this one. And the Sith one..I think. So OK I'm not a huge fan. But this one was long, and filled with bad acting and an abrupt ending.

The love story between Anakin and Senator Amidala strains credibility and they have no chemistry. The actor who played Anakin is not very compelling; he looks like a normal high-school kid; maybe that's the idea. His delivery was one-dimensional. The whole love story just seems like an extra factor the director put in there to make the film 3 hours long.

I'm a fan of Samuel L. Jackson, but was shocked at his awful acting here. He delivered lines not like a venerable Jedi knight; but as a Shaft reading a boring script. He had no inflection in his voice, but there was no gravity either. It was just shallow and made you feel as if the whole "episode" was just a sleepwalking effort by everyone. What an insult.

Ewan McGregor fared better. His young Obi-Wan had some good lines and he was convincing as a struggling mentor for his "paduan", Anakin.

C3PO and R2 appear, but they seem so dated already; and as comic relief it was entirely predictable.

The gladiator scene was perhaps the best action sequence. The clone battle was not very interesting. Who was the clone again? They all were wearing federation masks, so you can't tell.

You get to see Yoda light-saber duel with Count Dooku (nicely played by Christopher Lee)but the result of the battle was anticlimactic, as was the ending, abruptly stopping just when you thought the movie was hitting its stride. It's all those quiet scenes (Anakin going back for his mother, conversations with Padme, council conversations) that made this film extremely front-heavy, and made me so disappointed at the anticlimax after nearly 3 hours of viewing.

Grossed $80 million in its first weekend (May, 2002); opened six months later in about 60 IMAX theatres; nominated for 1 Academy Award, without a win; shot on Digital Video using a new 24-frame, High-Definition, Progressive scan camera; the title Attack of the Clones is a misnomer - the clones don't attack, but come to the defense of the Jedi; set 10 years after Episode 1, with Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) now a 19 year old Padawan (apprentice Jedi) to Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor); the best scenes = the breathtaking aerial chase through the asteroid field, and the light-saber duel between the good Yoda and the evil Count Dooku (Christopher Lee)

The last film in Lucas' saga is a lavish, spectacular-looking production. It is often considered the ugly duckling of the original trilogy, but I think it is a notch above episode IV (and just a notch below episodes III and V). In fact, I think it is the third best film in the 6-part saga. As far as I'm concerned, it is still a grandiosely entertaining film. It is not a movie with a beginning, climax and ending; the film's mechanism operates with only one goal in its mind: bring closure to Lucas' universe. There is an air of finality attached to the whole thing, which makes the film a little too sentimental, but emotionally rewarding. Also, it is a lot of fun. New characters are introduced and old ones face new, unexpected challenges. C3PO and R2D2 provide (as usual) great comic relief. Leia and Solo are a wonderful romantic duo, and Luke is still a great character to identify with. Again, it is Luke's (and Vader's) inner conflict what gives the saga its backbone. Lucas' aggressive imagination is still very much apparent, and the film's themes of loyalty, hope, and redemption resonate strongly. I'm glad Lucas eventually dropped the idea of making episode VII, VIII and IX, because this film is a great bookend to a long, fascinating and captivating saga. Not a perfect movie, but fun in the best matinée style.

Nominated for four Academy Awards, winning none; winner of Special Achievement Oscar; grossed $309 million (domestic); set single and opening-day box office records; the most under-rated of the segments of the Star Wars saga; the best scene = the speeder bike chase