Star Wars Special: Revenge of the Sith Review
The Clone Wars are coming to an end & the Jedi are about to win. Finally, the dark lord of the Sith reveals his face! Welcome back to my string of Star Wars reviews leading up to The Force Awakens.
Genre: Action / Fantasy / Science-Fiction
Director: George Lucas
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Frank Oz, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Christopher Lee, Anthony Daniels & Ian McDiarmid.
Run Time: 136 min.
US Release: 19 May 2005
UK Release: 19 May 2005
German Release: 19 May 2005
Following my The Nightmare Before Christmas review yesterday, I return today to my Star Wars Special. After having reviewed both, Clone Wars the movie & the television series, I will continue with the third and last instalment of the prequel trilogy: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. This film concluded Anakin’s story and linked the prequels to the original series.
While this wasn’t specifically a good Star Wars film, it is what Episode I should have been getting better in quality withEpisode II. Revenge of the Sith had a lot of areas for improvement, but it also felt like it was finally heading into the right direction.
— WARNING, THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS! —
This sci-fi blockbuster was a mixed bag for me. Though I was happy the plot finally felt like Star Wars again and set out the path of Anakin towards the dark side of the force, I also found there to be a lot of issues with the story.
One of the main problems I had with Episode III was in the opening act, when Anakin and Obi-wan enter Grievous’ ship. We get introduced to a new villain in the first couple of minutes, while witnessing the death of Dooku by the end of the opening act. All of this happens far too rushed, not giving the viewer enough time to process all that new information.
I’ll state this here because there was a scene that bothered me immensely, I hated the fact that they gave R2D2 the ability to fly; that episode where he is spotted in the hangar by the two droids and he sets them on fire with his rockets by spilling, what looked like flammable oil on them, was plain stupid.
One of the biggest plot holes in the film happens when the Emperor executes “Order 66”. If you did not watch the Clone Wars TV Show you will not know how this order came to be, which was released way after this movie. In Episode IIIthough it was randomly thrown into the viewer’s face, without them knowing when that order was established.
But the movie also had it’s positives, like the direction of the story; the darkness sweeping over the republic and Anakin’s recurring fear of losing a loved one, this time as a vision of Padme dying during childbirth. That vision is ultimately what makes him realize that he is not the Jedi he is supposed to be.
The dialogue improved a little bit, but was still very wooden and I had a feeling as if much was being rushed to finally get to the conclusion of the movie. One of the worst dialogues in the film was between Obi-Wan and Anakin during their confrontation.
The relationship between Anakin and Obi-wan was a big part of Episode III. Their relationship did develop into a brotherly one, with both showing mutual respect for one another. That is until Anakin is drawn to the dark side of the force and a heartbreaking scene is shown, in which it is revealed to Obi-Wan that his former apprentice killed the younglings.
Ian McDiarmid’s scenes in this science-fiction opera are much bigger than in the previous films and he was fantastic in them! The way he manipulates Anakin by driving a wedge between him and the Jedi council was great and his conversation with him about the dark side of the force and his former master Darth Plagueis was dialogue gold. Palpatine used Skywalker’s confusion to twist his moral point of view during personal conversations.
Sadly Hayden Christensen till was terrible as Anakin Skywalker. His giving in to the dark side of the force happened way too fast and was developed really sloppy, especially considering that mere 3 minutes ago he was shocked and repulsed to learn that his close friend Palpatine is the dark lord of the Sith. His turning to Darth Vader though, the way the mask finally dropped onto his face, was beautiful to watch.
One of the biggest disappointments though was how new characters kept being introduced, just to kill them off in the next scene. Best example is Count Dooku, who was revealed as a major villain by the third act of Attack of the Clones, only to immediately kill him off during the beginning of this sequel. If we get major characters introduced in one act just to have them killed in the next one, people won’t be able to build a relationship towards the character.
While talking about the inclusion of new characters, in my review for Episode I I mentioned how specific characters from the original movies should not have been included. Well, Episode III incorporated the much beloved character of Chewbacca, for no reason! The Wookiee resistance was good, but his character should have been left out!
The cinematography is where the largest improvement was made. The movie still makes an immense use of CGI, nothing changed in that aspect, and I do wish they had used more practical effects. Still I need to confess that it looks much better than in the previous two movies.
I also loved the way the space battle of the first scene was filmed. It reminded me of Return of the Jedi, in which the rebellion launched a full-scale battle against the newly build second Death Star. My only issue were the lightsaber fights, where Lucas used close-ups once again.
Verdict: Though Episode III was a huge improvement in comparison to the first two instalments of the prequel saga, it still had some major issues and was miles away from the quality of the originals. Still, the movie included some great space fights, solid dialogue lines and the fight between Yoda and Sidious at the end was very entertaining. But it also felt very rushed and so I will give Revenge of the Sith a 7.0 out of 10.
Now that I finally completed my section of the prequels, I can finally move on to the original trilogy, but before I do so I will include a review of Star Wars: Rebels, which played betweenEpisode III and A New Hope. What did you think of the third film from the prequel trilogy? Leave a comment below and if you like my review go ahead and share it. As always thank you for reading!