Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Director: George Lucas
Writer: George Lucas
Starring: Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, and Samuel L. Jackson
Reason for watching: Showing Jane all of the Star Wars movies
Number of times I’ve watched it: However many arms General Grevious has.
***
NOW THIS is the best prequel movie. Which is the equivalent of saying this is the best year of middle school….okay, maybe not that bad. But still there is little competition for that title.
Anyways, I don’t know who got to George Lucas but someone got him to stop with the political nonsense, AND I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER WITH THAT DECISION! There was fat to be trimmed, and it was trimmed. We actually get to see it happen in real time late in the movie when Anakin goes after the Separatist leaders. No one really cared about those dudes, and no one is upset when they don’t come back or when Jar Jar Binks barely makes an appearance. Sadly there is still the scene when the republic converts into an empire because of a fictitious plot that the Jedi were attempting to overthrown the republic. At least it’s not dwelled on for a while because there are five lightsaber duels that need to happen. And boy, oh boy do those fights deliver. Some might be a bit longer than others, but ultimately they are all interesting and represent important points in the story. Yes, I still don’t like Yoda as some kind of a flippy-jumpy ninja. But it can be fun.
The dire nature of this movie represents a truly unique point for the franchise. In the previous prequels despite the cloudy feelings the Jedi felt about a dark presence in their world, they still maintained an outward appearance of strength and capability. Here, everything spins out of control for our protagonists. While that has partially happened before in Empire Strikes Back, at least our heroes were still moving in a positive direction then. Here we get to watch Anakin Skywalker make mistake after mistake and lose further sight of himself, something that needed to happen for his ultimate arc in becoming Darth Vader. Shockingly, he has good and understandable motivation for doing so! He’s scared to lose his wife and unborn kid(s) (he doesn’t know it’s twins). For once I have to commend the writing here. While there was an endpoint already in mind as the original series was made first, the execution is still well done.
Some minor compliments, for being over 15 years old, the CGI in this movie has aged really well. General Grevious and Yoda still look great, as do the set pieces and space battles. That opening space flight/one-shot is a rare piece of editing genius for the prequels. Also, I have to apologize for not mentioning John Williams work yet on this series. He makes a new theme every movie, and finds ways to rework old themes as well. The makeup work for Anakin’s cookout is strong. And as usual, Ewan McGregor shines as Obi-Wan Kenobi. His portrayal of the character as caring, witty, and brave go a long way for a cast of characters that doesn’t get a lot of depth usually. For his part as well, Hayden Christensen does a good job portraying the pain Anakin is supposed to feel and being playful during the first act of the movie.
Of course there are the usual things to nitpick and complain about. The dialogue is ridiculous and corny at times. Particularly whenever Anakin and Padme share the screen it is heartbreaking to watch. Alright that pun was stupid, but you get the point. The misuse of Natalie Portman’s acting talents will go down worse than Greg Popovich leaving Tim Duncan on the bench at the end of regulation in game 6 of the 2013 NBA finals. In general, the acting in this movie is an improvement over the previous entries in this trilogy, but Christensen still over-acts his negative emotions. In addition, I’m gonna call out Ian McDiarmid for being a complete ham. (Seriously, this man walked up to the deli and bought the whole ham. Strike that. He bought the whole pig.) McDiarmid is clearly having a good time with it, but after the 2nd act, both his lines and deliveries of said lines are meme worthy.
But in the end, these minor points are enough to take away from my ultimate enjoyment of this movie. It’s strange to imagine a world in which Disney never gave Lucas a whooping $4,000,000,000, we never get the sequel trilogy, and this is the last Star Wars movie we get. Would the fandom be as divided as it is today without those movies? How would we feel if the final chapter of the Star Wars franchise was a prequel with a coughing cyborg, Jules Winnfield being a baaaaaad man as usual, and Saruman with severed hands?
7/10
Until I see another one
PS - if you converted the final four episodes of the The Clone Wars cartoon series into a movie, it would be better than any of the prequel movies. Probably the sequel movies as well. Go watch that.