Moreover, I think that the primary Jedi/Sith fight lacked interesting motivation. Darth Maul was just there to test his powers against a Jedi. He did not really connect to the rest of the story, which was bad because he was the most "awesome" part.
Finally, the resolution to the battle was underwhelming. Basically, Anakin defeated the bad guys a la "The Pink Panther Strikes Again," accidentally winning the war.
In contrast, I think that Attack of the Clones set up the Clone War, set up how Palpatine took over the Republic (I don't care how he became Chancellor any more than I care how he won his first Senate campaign), and had many action sequences that directly related to the main plot and were consequential.
Revenge of the Sith suffered from two things:BridgeConsoleMasher wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2019 12:46 am I think it's designated pretty low by different aggregates and people's opinions but in terms of a simple adventure story with action here and there it was pretty entertaining. The Jedi battle arena was a big payoff too.
First, Anakin was never really portrayed as a "good" man, but still as a whiny teenager (which was more excusable in Episode II), which makes his fall less tragic.
Second, the plot about Padme being in peril and Anakin turning to the Dark Side to save her lacked enough meat to connect it to the other reasons why Anakin rebelled against the Jedi. That is, it lacked a means by which she was in peril, or a reason why the Jedi rules were an obstacle to saving her. He simply sensed a vague danger, and Palpatine said that the Dark Side could magically protect Padme from... whatever.
Instead, we should have seen situations where obeying Jedi rules prevented easy victories or put people in danger (think "obeying the rules of engagement prevented them from wiping out soldiers who later laid waste to a town" sort of thing), and what pushes Anakin over the edge is a similar situation where, let's say for example breaking a fragile ceasefire is the only way to make certain that Padme is safe (because Jedi rules mean waiting until the other side strikes, and it looks like the peace talks are going downhill).
Basically, the Phantom Menace missed the mark, and Revenge of the Sith was a good film, but had to hit a higher standard, because it had to wrap everything up. Attack of the Clones was a good film and had more modest ambitions, so it was able to meet them.
