STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF
THE SITH
  
STARRING:
Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L.
Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Frank Oz, Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee, Keisha
Castle-Hughes, Silas Carson, Jay Laga'aia, Bruce Spence, Wayne Pygram,
Temuera Morrison, David Bowers, Oliver Ford Davies
2005, 146 Minutes, Directed by: George Lucas
 Description:
The turning point for the entire Star Wars saga is at hand.
After years of civil war, the Separatists have battered the already
faltering Republic nearly to the point of collapse. On Coruscant, the Senate
watches anxiously as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine aggressively strips away
more and more constitutional liberties in the name of safeguarding the
Republic. Yoda, Mace Windu, and their fellow Masters grapple with the
Chancellor’s disturbing move to assume control of the Jedi Council. And
Anakin Skywalker, the prophesied Chosen One, destined to bring balance to
the Force, is increasingly consumed by his fear that his secret love,
Senator Padmé Amidala, will die.
As the combat escalates across the galaxy, the stage is set for an explosive
endgame: Obi-Wan undertakes a perilous mission to destroy the dreaded
Separatist military leader General Grievous. Palpatine, eager to secure even
greater control, subtly influences public opinion to turn against the Jedi.
And a conflicted Anakin–tormented by unspeakable visions–edges dangerously
closer to the brink of a galaxy-shaping decision. It remains only for Darth
Sidious, whose shadow looms ever larger, to strike the final staggering blow
against the Republic . . . and to ordain a fearsome new Sith Lord: Darth
Vader. —
Amazon.com
Some wag on a Forum remarked that I had probably just cut ‘n’ paste bits
and pieces from previous reviews for this
Revenge of the Sith article, but the truth is that the movie itself seems to be
cobbled together from bits from the previous two so-called prequels.
In fact, it is closest in tone and tempo to Attack
of the Clones than any of the previous Star Wars
movies, especially the original trilogy of films. It is practically a rehash
of Attack with its senseless planet hopping escapades, its empty
spectacle, its dull political meetings, etc.
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"Like the other two so-called 'prequels', this one still doesn't
feel like a Star Wars movie . . ." |
Revenge of the Sith suffers from the same problems as the other
two prequels, and if these problems didn’t particularly bother you in those
films, then they probably won’t bother you in this one. Except, to be
honest, Revenge of the Sith isn’t quite as dull and plodding as
Attack of the Clones, and the acting is slightly better this time round.
Also, Revenge of the Sith does have some good — even moving —
moments, sure, but it does take its sweet time to get finally going.
But the same problems remain: (a.) The movie is redundant because we
already know what is going to happen, who is going to die, who is going to
live, etc. (b.) It is difficult to be emotionally involved with this bunch
of humorless superhuman Jedis. (c.) There is a lot of action going on, but
little emotional involvement, not just because of the characters we don’t
really care about, but because the scenes are so perfunctory. Action
sequences, especially the light sabre duels have no flow to them and Lucas
almost seems to be in a rush to get things done. The best light sabre duels
in the Star Wars movies are still those in Empire
Strikes Back and Phantom Menace.
And
then there are the geek boy qualms I have: (a.) The Jedis are awfully easy
to kill off in most cases. There don’t seem to be a lot of them around
either, well, not enough to keep peace in an entire galaxy anyway. (b.) The
Jedis’ training always seems to failing them. Two chats with the Emperor and
Anakin is trotting off to join the Emperor and defect to the Dark Side of
The Force. The Jedi played Samuel L. Jackson (hey, even a geek boy such as
myself have trouble remembering all those names Lucas makes up all the time)
pretty quickly wants to simply kill the Emperor instead of just arresting
him. (c.) And the biggest issue: these so-called prequels don’t feel like
Star Wars. Sure, there are the light sabers, the droids, and so forth. But
most of the hardware, costumes, etc. just feel, well, a bit “off” if you
know what I mean. They feel as if they belong to a different set of movies
altogether. (d.) Lots of plot points and details simply don’t mesh with what
happens in the original trilogy: Darth Vader not recognizing R2D2 and C3PO
for instance.
Also, I actually miss those old spaceship models and effects in the old
Star Wars flicks. They had a solidity and
substance that are lacking in the busy GGI overkill world of Revenge of
the Sith. Stuff looked as if they might actually work, here they just
look wrong. Even the John Williams score seems wrong: one of the things I
liked about the previous films was the music, which at times called
attention to itself. Here it is just a cacophonous overkill, as if composer
Williams was also in a hurry to get things done.
Ah, let’s face up to it: a fellow critic had it right when he remarked
that the magic in these movies died a long time ago and that Revenge of
the Sith is just the death twitch. The magic probably died when those
damned silly Ewoks first popped up in Return of the
Jedi or even earlier, when bad-ass bounty hunter Boba Fett was killed
off so easily earlier on in that same movie . . .
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