Padmé was a terrific character for almost the entirety of her run through the prequel films, including her second life during The Clone Wars.  But for most of Revenge of The Sith, I couldn’t stand her.  I mean, it’s Lucas’s fault, but Padmé spent all of her screen time in ROTS worrying, pacing, stressing, whining, and crying.  It was disappointing to get this from one of the strongest Prequel characters.  Come to think of it, this might be why Threepio just nonchalantly walked away and told her everything would be fine when Anakin went to the Temple Inferno, as I mentioned in the review this morning.  Perhaps she was so annoying that even Threepio couldn’t take it anymore.  Anyway, at the end of the film, she put on her best maternity dress and decided she was going to save the galaxy by flying straight to Mustafar to talk some sense into her man.  And then she just started crying again the whole time.  Even Anakin was just like “Please shut up, already!” so he killed her.  Whatever.

As much as I like Padmé in general, her behavior in ROTS soured me on figure opportunities from this source, but of all of her outfits, this was probably the most important one, so it’s fine that we have it.  The figure isn’t terrible, but it falls short of good, as has been the case with most from the era.

The sculpt of the body is pretty good, with ball jointed head, shoulders, waist, and knees, as well as swivel elbows, wrists, and hips.  No ankles, of course.  The only thing useful the lower body can do is be in a seated position so she can pilot her shiny Naboo car that we don’t have.  (I actually use the SOTDS Naboo Star Skiff as a “stand-in” for this ship.)  This pose is facilitated by the soft cloth skirt. 

What is not good is Padmé‘s face sculpt.  Chris texted me during the game last night to tell me he thought this figure was Padmé‘s version of Monkey-Face Leia.  Up until recently, face sculpts have always been hit or miss, and tend to rely on the beholder’s imagination as far as likeness:  “I know this is a Luke figure, so it looks like Luke.”  But this sculpt/paint job does Ms. Portman a significant disservice.  If she ever saw this figure, she’d probably start crying again.

Lastly, Padmé comes with the Mustafar-themed base, which makes sense (unlike Threepio). 

In the end, it’s not awful by any stretch, and it will likely never be remade.  So it works for what it was, an average figure from 2005.  Tyler McThrawington suggested to me in a compelling DM that it be considered for a straight re-issue in TVC.  5/10.