That’s not to say that no one can get behind some lovin’ in a Star Wars film. There’s plenty of romance in The Empire Strikes Back and people don’t seem to mind, but then again, Padme is no Leia and Anakin is certainly no Han Solo. Where Han is undeniably badass, Anakin’s an annoying teenager. Where Leia is opinionated, hot-headed, and a little stubborn, Padme is more reserved and reflective. There’s also less internal resistance to the relationship and far more external resistance. There’s no reason why Han and Leia shouldn’t be together outside of their own feelings. Anakin and Padme are dealing with what is basically a forbidden love.

And I’ll be honest, the worst dialog in the movie is in a couple of the romantic scenes. For that matter, some of the flattest acting and worst optical effects are in there, too. So those scenes have a couple of strikes against them as it is, but then the fact that they’re dealing with a couple of characters far away from the action, that puts them over the top as some of the most reviled scenes in the entire saga.

I don’t think I have to argue that a love story of some kind is necessary. I think everyone wanted to see how Anakin and Padme hooked up. It just could have been carried out better, which is hard for me to argue. The pacing is definitely off and some of the scenes do get pretty corny and bog the movie down. I could give you the excuse that the acting and dialogue, especially involving romance, in this style of movie is supposed to be melodramatic, but I don’t completely buy that and I think they over-shot to pure ham-fistedness in a couple scenes. Who I don’t blame are the actors. Portman and Christensen are certainly capable performers, but there’s only so much that can be done with that dialog. Besides, knowing Lucas’ style, he probably picked takes that looked better from a visual standpoint and wasn’t necessarily only concerned with the performance.

So I guess I’m kind of splitting this one. I definitely think a love story needed to be told, for sure. I just happen to agree with a lot of people who think it could and should have been done better.

But apparently there is a group of haters out there who just don’t get what’s great about the diminutive dervish taking it to Count Dooku. Their primary complaint is that it doesn’t make sense, Yoda’s old and kind of feeble ninety percent of the time, so how is he able to switch the ass-kick dial to maximum all of the sudden? For that, you need to look at the films, specifically some of the lines in The Empire Strikes Back.

For starters, Yoda is immediately billed in Episode V as a “great warrior”. That right there should tell you he at least used to be able to lay some smack-down. It’s also part of the payoff when you learn that this great Jedi Master is a little frog-like creature. Second, Yoda is constantly reminding Luke of how conflict is not necessarily the best option. “Wars not make one great,” he says. “A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.” It’s pretty obvious this guy is a pacifist and sees the value of solving problems by other means, with violence as an absolute last resort.

That said, the Jedi are the guardians of peace and justice. When those things are threatened, it’s up to the Jedi to solve things, and words aren’t always going to get the job done. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that every Jedi can fight, no matter what they look like or their age or size, and Yoda is definitely no exception. So for me, “action" Yoda wasn’t just a thrill, it was expected. You’re telling me that the biggest war in the history of the Republic is going down and all the best Jedi Master around is going to do is sit on the sidelines and dispense tokens of wisdom in backwards talk? I don’t think so. To me, that would make much less sense than a seemingly frail Yoda busting out hardcore in order to save the galaxy.