Review of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) by Ben T — 13 Dec 2015

Spoilers.

For me Revenge of the Sith is a really nostalgic movie. I don't know why but I used to watch this film a lot when I was younger. Revenge of the Sith is without a doubt the most polarizing of the Star Wars movies. Some people hate this film, some think it's okay and some love it. I think that while it's an okay movie it's definitely the best of the prequel trilogy. The acting in this film is a lot better than the previous two. Hayden Christensen is a lot better in this film. He's not great and he still reads some of lines terribly like at the end with Obi-Wan but he's still decent. Ewan McGregor is amazing in this movie. He gives a very likeable peformance. But I love how he gives a more emotional peformance, his line where he yells at the evil Anakin how much he cared about him is so powerful and it's great to see an actor put some emotion in his peformance. Natalie Portman isn't in the film that much but she's alright but I hate how Padme dies of a broken heart, that's so bad. Ian McDiarmid is so great, he's unbelievably over the top and hammy, he does this weird voice that's really funny and the scene where he electrocutes Mace Windu is quite a violent scene but I found it a bit unintentionally funny because of how hammy Ian McDiarmid is. Samuel L Jackson is incredibly boring and monotone in this film but he has an unbelievably over the top death. Frank Oz is great as Yoda, speaking of which I thought Yoda was a lot better in this movie. George Lucas while he still doesn't do an amazing job at directing this film did a better job than with the previous two. While the dialogue in this film is still a bit clunky and dull it's again a lot better than the other two. Now while this film is still a lot lot better than Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones it's still a mixed bag and has a lot of problems. The action is fairly mixed and I think that there is an overuse of the lightsaber. The fight between Obi-Wan, Anakin and Count Dooku is a lot better than the one in Attack of the Clones and while it's very short I love the bit when Anakin's anger gets the better of him and the Emporer godes him into quite brutally beheading Count Dooku. The Obi-Wan vs General Grevious fight is actually pretty awful. General Grevious is a really bad and useless villain, he does literally nothing and considering he has four arms and fights with four lightsabers you would expect an amazing and intense action scene as Obi-Wan has to act on his feet and figure out how to defeat Grevious, but no the fight is over in about a minute as Obi-Wan just cuts off two of his hands and then force pushes him away. It's very underwhelming and there is literally no point in General Grevious being in the film. The Mace Windu vs the Emporer fight is very underwhelming as it's very short and while it's clear Samuel L Jackson knows how to do the physical fighting, Ian McDiarmid obviously has no clue what he's doing although as I said the scene does have a very over the top death. The Yoda vs Emporer fight I have always loved, I like how Yoda does less flipping around and while it starts as a lightsaber fight it ends as a battle of the force which is great. Ian McDiarmid is again very hammy in this scene. The Anakin vs Obi-Wan fight is very emotionally driven and has great music and some great moments, although it's very overly coreographed and overlong but it has some great moments and I love, love the ending where Obi-Wan chops Anakin's legs off and screams at him as he burns. Although I still don't understand how the fight is over when Obi-Wan jumps on a hill as he has the high ground, even though in Phantom Menace Darth Maul had the high ground and Obi-Wan won the fight. Overall the action is fairly mixed although when it's good, it's really good. This film has some great moments in it. I adore the opening. The film opens with an amazing flying scene which starts with a unbroken take, although the scene with the buzz droids is a bit pointless. The best scene in this movie is the opera scene with Anakin and Palpatine, it's a brilliant scene and it's very good to see the Emporer tempting Anakin towards the dark side. My personal favourite scene in the whole movie however is the order 66 scene, it's very powerful and brutal, but it's also a scene that is made for everyone. If you liked these Jedi watch a powerful scene of them all getting killed, but if you hated these characters watch them all get killed. The John Williams score is amazing, it's the best of the trilogy and very powerful. The cgi is also a lot better, there's still a couple of bad effects but for the most part looks a lot better. There's also a practical set from the first Star Wars movie which is great. The cinematography is again excellent, but to be fair every Star Wars movie has great cinematography. However there are problems, like an over reliance on cgi, clunky dialogue, yet luckily Jar Jar Binks has no lines. One of the worst things about the movie is the handling of Darth Vader and Anakin. Anakin's turn to the dark side is very sudden, he chops off Mace Windu's hand, feels about a second of regret then suddenly he's evil. Then he gets operated on after losing body parts and getting set on fire, which is a great scene by the way, then he becomes Darth Vader and does his stupid, unintentionally funny 'nooooooooo' line then he watches the Death Star get made and that's it. Considering this film was heavily marketing Anakin becoming Darth Vader, it's a huge shame Vader is barely in the film. Also as I said before Padme dies.

Of a broken heart which is so stupid, I feel like George Lucas needed her to die immediately after childbirth so he just quickly thought up she would die of a broken heart. Also this film does drag in places and while I do love the whole opening action set piece it's a bit overlong, I remember checking how far in the film was and it was 20 minutes! Also some of the blue screen is a bit shoddy at time. Also a huge problem I have is Anakin doesn't really feel evil, he feels more like a bully. Think about it, he doesn't murder a single Jedi, he murders younglings but that's it.

I think it would have been so effective if maybe Anakin had murdered a couple of the jedi as we could see the pain of killing the Jedi yet the satisfaction of killing the people who denied him to become a master. That would have been powerful and amazing. Overall you can nit pick this film to death, there's a lot of problems but at the end of the day Revenge of the Sith is a fairly fun, emotional and quite entertaining movie. It's not perfect but it has some excellent acting from Ewan McGergor, fantastic music and really good action. It's flawed but the best of the prequel trilogy.

B-.