- Publisher: 20th Century Fox
- Production Studio: Lucasfilm
- Release: 19 May 2005
- Genre: Action, Fantasy
- Director: George Lucas
- Producer: Rick McCallum
- Writers: George Lucas (screenplay & story)
Previously on the SDP, I reviewed Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and... I didn't like it. I believe the words I used to describe it were "so bad, it's... meh". Well, we've got one more prequel to go, so let's see what we do with it.
I love how Revenge of the Sith's opening text crawl starts "War!", as if desperately trying to get our attention for once. And considering how the other two prequels bogged theirs down with mentions of trade negotiations and senate votes, I'd say they finally have my attention. We move from that to the first scene, a long one-take of a space battle already in progress. The Separatist army, led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and a new villain, the kinda-sorta-droid General Greivous (voice of Matthew Wood), have kidnapped the leader of the Galactic Republic, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Our heroes, the Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan MacGregor) fly in to the enemy's command ship to rescue him. Between this, the opening text, and how quickly they get both the Wilhelm Scream and the line "I've got a bad feeling about this" out of the way, it's as if this movie is trying its hardest to get back into our good graces, and you know what? I appreciate the effort.
This sequence is basically a James-Bond style adventure, something the past two movies have tried, but failed, to accomplish. Maybe it's because it actually embraces the swashbuckling attitude, with Obi-Wan being the go-to guy for all manner of silly one-liners. They've even got their own "voice with an Internet connection" support guy in the form of R2-D2! Eventually they make it up where the Chancellor is held, and fight Dooku to free him. Anakin disarms the Count and has him at his mercy; after some internal deliberation, he simply decapitates his foe. This exercise in less-than-noble morality does a fair job of setting up this movie's theme, of Anakin's tragic fall from grace, but more on that later. For now, our heroes get double-backsies re-captured by Grevious, but get out of their jam by crash-landing the ship. I don't know about you, but a certain Airplane! clip comes to my mind...
Meanwhile, the Clone Wars open up on multiple fronts, as Obi-Wan leads a Clonetrooper unit in a sneak attack on General Greivous. Yoda has an adventure of his own, joining forces with the Wookie race, including Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), to defend against another droid front. Back on Coruscant, Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and some other Jedi move in to arrest Palpatine, before he can grow too politically powerful. In the fight that ensues, Windu has Palpatine on the ropes when Anakin walks on the scene. After some internal deliberation, echoing what he would eventually do again in Return of the Jedi, Anakin decides to disarm Windu -- almost literally -- allowing Palpatine to Force-lightning him out the window. Newly-disfigured, Palpatine re-christens Anakin as Darth Vader, restructures the republic into the Galactic Empire, and enacts Order 66, a secret directive for his clone army to murder the Jedi Knights. All of them. The montage of massacred Jedi that follows is dramatic, yes, but of little value to anyone whose knowledge of Star Wars is just from the movies, and not any supplemental material made either before or after. I, for example, recognise a couple of these locations from playing Star Wars: Battlefront II -- and before you ask, the GOOD Star Wars: Battlefront II.
Nonetheless, Obi-Wan and Yoda survive their respective assassination attempts, because plot armour. They reunite on Coruscant and uncover the horrifying truth, that Anakin has indeed turned to the dark side, and even murdered a temple's worth of child Jedi trainees for good measure. When they report this to Padme, she struggles to accept it, and flies off to Anakin to assuage her fears. Obi-Wan stows aboard with her, while Yoda stays to fight the new Emperor. If you liked the Yoda/Dooku fight from the last movie, this scene delivers many of the same goods, despite another... charmingly embarrassing one-liner:
Afterwards, Obi-Wan regroups with Yoda and Padme as she gives birth to her twin children, Luke and Leia Skywalker, and promptly dies. According to the robot nurse, she was physically healthy, but just gave up the will to live. And I'm like... well, THAT's retarded! I mean, yeah, learning that your husband went and betrayed everything you stand for would be crushing, but come on! Did they just need to kill her off now because she wasn't in any of the next movies? Why not just stick her on Alderaan with Leia and her step-father? I mean, we never actually go there in canon, before it gets blown up by the Death Star! Meanwhile, the Empire recovers Vader's body, and reawakens him in a new suit of armour. When Palpatine informs him of his wife's death, he loudly shouts "No!", and a new Internet meme was born. We end with the Skywalker babies being delivered to their new respective homes, ending on an homage of that classic shot from the first movie, where Luke's foster parents stare off into the distance of Tatooine, the planet's twin suns setting, or perhaps rising, on the desert horizon. You are now free to turn off your TV.
Revenge of the Sith is, finally, the first Star Wars prequel movie I can comfortably call "good", despite the big hulking asterisk attached to that statement. It still can't manage to shake off all of the baggage from its predecessors, such as a few odd scenes of so-called "romantic" dialogue between Anakin and Padme, but at least they actually serve the plot this time around, giving him incentive for exploring the dark side of the Force. Perhaps the biggest problem is the chronic under-acting by many of its performers. Yet, there are still some actors who manage to break out and have some fun with their roles, most notably Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan and Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine. (Basically, if your name starts with a "Mc", you're in good hands.) Yes, they delve into campy and even narmy territory once in a while, but I'll take that over dull surprise any day of the week. And of course, the ending keeps piling on stupid moment after stupid moment. But at the same time, George Lucas seems to be learning from his past mistakes, as there's a considerably better balance between exposition and action, and said action scenes feel more like the swashbuckling space adventure we've been starved of from the past two movies. And last but not least, there's virtually no Jar-Jar Binks in this movie! Yeah, he's got, maybe, one short line, and it's in plain English, not that Gungan patois. Surely that would bode well for the future of Star Wars... if not for the fact that its eventual follow-up would be handled by a different director and writers entirely. But that's a review for another day. Until then...
This is IchigoRyu.
May the Force be with you.
Positives:
+ The plot is built around a distinct theme, of Anakin sacrificing what he loves for power.
+ A few good performances.
Negatives:
- Still a few weak performances.
- Multiple stupid moments near the end.
Acting: 3 out of 5
Writing: 3 out of 5
Special Effects: 4 out of 5
Visual Design: 5 out of 5
The Call: 75% (B-)
I love how Revenge of the Sith's opening text crawl starts "War!", as if desperately trying to get our attention for once. And considering how the other two prequels bogged theirs down with mentions of trade negotiations and senate votes, I'd say they finally have my attention. We move from that to the first scene, a long one-take of a space battle already in progress. The Separatist army, led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and a new villain, the kinda-sorta-droid General Greivous (voice of Matthew Wood), have kidnapped the leader of the Galactic Republic, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Our heroes, the Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan MacGregor) fly in to the enemy's command ship to rescue him. Between this, the opening text, and how quickly they get both the Wilhelm Scream and the line "I've got a bad feeling about this" out of the way, it's as if this movie is trying its hardest to get back into our good graces, and you know what? I appreciate the effort.
This sequence is basically a James-Bond style adventure, something the past two movies have tried, but failed, to accomplish. Maybe it's because it actually embraces the swashbuckling attitude, with Obi-Wan being the go-to guy for all manner of silly one-liners. They've even got their own "voice with an Internet connection" support guy in the form of R2-D2! Eventually they make it up where the Chancellor is held, and fight Dooku to free him. Anakin disarms the Count and has him at his mercy; after some internal deliberation, he simply decapitates his foe. This exercise in less-than-noble morality does a fair job of setting up this movie's theme, of Anakin's tragic fall from grace, but more on that later. For now, our heroes get double-backsies re-captured by Grevious, but get out of their jam by crash-landing the ship. I don't know about you, but a certain Airplane! clip comes to my mind...
Dr. Rumack: I just want to tell you both good luck, and we're all counting on you.When the dust settles, Anakin reunites with his wife, Padme (Natalie Portman), who tells that she is pregnant. At first pleased by the news, a nightmare of her dying while giving birth troubles Anakin, who seeks counseling from Palpatine. Palpatine awards him a spot on the Jedi Council, who in turn assigns him to spy and report on Palpatine, who is continuing to build his own political power. So while the plot is still a little political in nature, something which bogged down the other two prequels, the focus has been narrowed down to specific characters, namely Anakin and Palpatine, which makes it considerably easier to get absorbed into. One night, he meets up with Palpatine at an opera (or a Blitzball match, I couldn't tell). When Anakin expresses his fears about losing Padme, Palpatine tells him a story about a Sith lord, his old master, who could use the dark side of the Force to prevent his loved ones from dying. I've seen a number of online critics, such as The Nostalgia Critic and Awesome Walter, praise this scene as the best moment in the prequels, and even one of the best from all of Star Wars. I would argue, however, that this is yet another instance of George Lucas hinting at more interesting stories but not delivering them, but there's still a lot on hand to like. I mean, he even gets away with mentioning midi-chlorians again, and no one has yet bat an eye! Now that's some good will.
 |
| The story benefits from focusing more heavily on just a few characters, namely Palpatine (left) and Anakin (right). |
Nonetheless, Obi-Wan and Yoda survive their respective assassination attempts, because plot armour. They reunite on Coruscant and uncover the horrifying truth, that Anakin has indeed turned to the dark side, and even murdered a temple's worth of child Jedi trainees for good measure. When they report this to Padme, she struggles to accept it, and flies off to Anakin to assuage her fears. Obi-Wan stows aboard with her, while Yoda stays to fight the new Emperor. If you liked the Yoda/Dooku fight from the last movie, this scene delivers many of the same goods, despite another... charmingly embarrassing one-liner:
Yoda: Not if anything to say about it, I have!I'm just saying, I don't think Yoda used this sentence structure all the time before. While Yoda holds his own for much of the fight, he takes one fall down into a hidden air vent, and decides now is a good time to play dead instead of finishing the job. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan and Padme arrive at the volcanic planet Mustafar, where Darth Vader has just killed the last traces of the separatist army. They try to convince Vader to ditch his descent into the dark side of the Force, but to no avail. He chokes Padme around for a bit, and proceeds to duel Obi-Wan. The fight choreography retains the high-energy pace of such scenes from the other prequels, with an added bit of improbability as the combatants balance atop pieces of the collapsing base. However, I've finally noticed a flaw in this approach: everything goes by so fast that, combined with the camera angles they chose, it's hard to tell both sides apart. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they had different coloured lightsabers, rather than both blue, because that's always been an easy indicator of telling who was who in these kinds of battles. But, in the end, it's Obi-Wan who comes out on top. Despondent, he leaves Anakin on the lava river's banks, legs severed and body burning, because somebody finally remembered what convection is.
 |
| As thrilling as the Jedi duels are, they aren't helped by giving both sides the same colour of lightsaber. |
Revenge of the Sith is, finally, the first Star Wars prequel movie I can comfortably call "good", despite the big hulking asterisk attached to that statement. It still can't manage to shake off all of the baggage from its predecessors, such as a few odd scenes of so-called "romantic" dialogue between Anakin and Padme, but at least they actually serve the plot this time around, giving him incentive for exploring the dark side of the Force. Perhaps the biggest problem is the chronic under-acting by many of its performers. Yet, there are still some actors who manage to break out and have some fun with their roles, most notably Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan and Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine. (Basically, if your name starts with a "Mc", you're in good hands.) Yes, they delve into campy and even narmy territory once in a while, but I'll take that over dull surprise any day of the week. And of course, the ending keeps piling on stupid moment after stupid moment. But at the same time, George Lucas seems to be learning from his past mistakes, as there's a considerably better balance between exposition and action, and said action scenes feel more like the swashbuckling space adventure we've been starved of from the past two movies. And last but not least, there's virtually no Jar-Jar Binks in this movie! Yeah, he's got, maybe, one short line, and it's in plain English, not that Gungan patois. Surely that would bode well for the future of Star Wars... if not for the fact that its eventual follow-up would be handled by a different director and writers entirely. But that's a review for another day. Until then...
This is IchigoRyu.
May the Force be with you.
Positives:
+ The plot is built around a distinct theme, of Anakin sacrificing what he loves for power.
+ A few good performances.
Negatives:
- Still a few weak performances.
- Multiple stupid moments near the end.
Acting: 3 out of 5
Writing: 3 out of 5
Special Effects: 4 out of 5
Visual Design: 5 out of 5
The Call: 75% (B-)
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