Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith review by Cinema Guru Boy

Okay, first off, let me say where I stand on the Star Wars prequel trilogy as a whole, because I'm always stunned by these people who hate episodes I and II, then are surprised by how bad the third is. This is a film design for fans of the film, this doesn't reach a mass audience, this film was made to see the creation of a mythology we fans are already familiar with. I thought Episode I was panned much harder than it deserved to be. Yes, it was flat and childish, but it was a kid's movie. I'll take Phantom Menace over Home Alone any day. It had a lot going for it. The design of Coruscant for one, Qui-Gon's relationship with Obi-Won, Anakin, and the Jedi Counsil for another, and thirdly, Darth Maul is undeniably cool. It wasn't one of the top ten films of 1999, but it was all first act,so that's excusable. Attack of the Clones really restored the magic that carried the first ones. Yes, the love line was painful, but absolutely necessary and also a very miniscule portion of the film. The resurrection of the power of the Sith, interfering with the corruption of the Senate, the intense lightsaber duels, the toning down of Jar-Jar, the concept of Jengo Fett's involvement in cloning and stormtroopers, the amazing colleseum scene, and the introduction of Yoda as an action star. This was a great film for any fan, a lame film for any non-fan. And now Revenge of the Sith has graced us, and creates a cycle that has brought these three films full circle, giving us fans a visual interpretation of the mythology we've been drooling over for decades.

Because this film is one of such intense cult status, it is the details that matter, and therefore must be discussed, therefore I must have a FULL-SCALE SPOILER WARNING to start things off. Beginning with scene one, the starship battle; this was as exciting as anything we have yet to see. Yes, it is over-effected, almost to the point of looking animated, but who cares? It looks great. And once Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor), Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and R2-D2 reach General Grievous's (Matthew Wood) starship to save Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) the action raises another level, and introduces another temporary villian very worthy of the same plane as Darth Maul and Count Dooku. Not only is his tendency of collecting lightsabers from fallen Jedi entirely cool, but watching him weild four at a time against Obi-Wan is as good as it gets.

Moving on, Anakin and Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) continue their love line, and it's as stale as it was in Clones, maybe moreso. They had no chemistry whatsoever and Portman was almost sleepwalking through this film, especially sad coming off two incredibly enjoyable performances in 2004 (Closer and Garden State). However, they did put C-3PO to good use as Padme's assistant, he almost didn't even make this movie.

A combo that did produce chemistry was Anakin and Palpatine. McDiarmid played Palpatine so subtlely evil he absolutely knocked it out of the park as the stand-out performance of the film. When he told Anakin the story of the Sith master who learned how to manipulate midichlorians with the force to create or preserve life, and how his apprentice (presumably Palpatine) learned the secrets before killing the master in his sleep, it was chilling. McDiarmid nailed this monologue completely. And it cleared things up that appeared in Menace, most notably Anakin's incredibly high midichlorian count, the point of introducing the concept of midichlorians at all, and Anakin's immacculate conception. Assuming Palpatine created him to have an incredibly powerful apprentice, this makes the trilogy as a whole much stronger than previously expected.

Then we have have the showdown between Mace Windu (Samuel L Jackson) and Palpatine. We finally see Darth Sidious weild a lightsaber, how can any fanboy not be geeked by this? And once Anakin realized he had hepled kill Master Windu, his reaction was enough to send goosebumps down your spine. And Palpatine re-christens him "Darth Vader." Awesome!

The next amazing moment in the Star Wars mythology that was executed so well was the order 66. When Palpatine gave that order, it was breathtaking. When the stormtroopers cornered each vulnerable Jedi and destroyed them, it was touching. When Anakin slaughtered the children, it was unbelievable. All this with John Williams' score made for one the best sequences ever assembled in the series, very much including anything in the original trilogy. This almost makes George Lucas look like a pretty good director.

And then come the moment every fanboy could only imagine. Obi-Wan tracks Anakin down on Mustafar, while Yoda seeks out Palpatine. Here we have the two best duels in any of the six films, and then Lucas splices them together, upping the excitement to a place none of us could ever dream of. The Yoda-Palatine duel was just cool. Yoda works so well as an action star and this fight was so well choreographed I could've almost cried. But then you have not only the excitement, but the emtional weight of the Obi-Wan vs. Anakin duel. As if the fight itself wasn't great enough, once Anakin was defeated, and Obi-Wan threw him a monologue about Anakin's being the chosen one and feeling like a brother, McGregor's acting reached an acme in my book. And Anakin's reply of hatred was off the charts. How could any Star Wars fan be disappointed?

And now my complaints. If there's going to be a Wookie battle, why reduce it to just clips? I want to see Wookies charging into fields of battle, ripping arms off and beating droids to death with them. More Wookies would've been nice, however, Krshyyyk looked great. As the plot in Sith goes, Anakin should've thought his baby died with Padme, however, in The Empire Strikes Back, he knew he had a son and his name is Luke. That was inconsistant. In A New Hope, Anakin implied he thought Obi-Wan is dead, but this film shows us he knows darn well Obi-Wan is alive. In Empire, Obi-Wan says to Yoda that Luke is their last hope, to which Yoda repies, "No, there is another," referring to Leia, implying Obi-Wan doesn't know about Leia, but in Sith, he obviously does. And I wanted a better explanation of the the Force-ghosts. It felt very tacked onto the end when Yoda tells Obi-Wan that Qui-Gon has learned this skill and he needs to learn it, too. I want to know what makes Qui-Gon so special that he figured it out, and what is the secret, how do they do it? A cameo by Liam Neeson to explain this would've been incredibly appropriate. And these issues are why my rating has knocked the score of this film all the way down to a nine.


9 out of 10 Jackasses
blog comments powered by Disqus