STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH

You will die in childbirth…

What a lovely thing to say to your wife.

Revenge of the Sith is the best of a bad situation. That can be taken two ways. Firstly, it’s by far the strongest entry into the Prequel Trilogy. Secondly, it’s forced to bridge the gap between the two trilogies in just over two hours. While it does its best, the sequence of Anakin turning to the Dark Side feels rushed. One minute Anakin fights for the Light, the next minute he’s de-handing Mace Windu. While the Clone Wars helped the situation years later, at the time, and still now if you haven’t seen it, the narrative seems to change direction without much warning.

Despite that, the movie on the whole is a lot more fun to watch than Episodes 1 and 2. The hours upon hours of Space Politics are reduced to a few minutes, and Jar Jar doesn’t speak once. Ewan McGregor’s performance as Obi Wan Kenobi peaks throughout the entirety of the film, especially in his goodbye to his former friend.

Something Episode 3 does well is that there is rarely a break between the fantastic battles. We open with the Battle over Coruscant, and quickly are shown various battles throughout the galaxy. The fights on Utapau and Kashyyyk stand out the most, probably because they’re given the most screen time. We’re also introduced to new character General Grievous, who is one of the film’s most fun characters. Chewbacca also makes a quick appearance, but nothing close to what you’d want to see.

Sadly, the scenes between Anakin and Padme are still as uncomfortable to sit through. Thankfully, they don’t spend the entire movie together like last time. Although the scenes they do spend together seemed ridiculously stretched out.

The greatest points in the film stand out as some of the best in the entire saga. The whole ‘Order 66’ sequence, while not the most uplifting of scenes, perfectly captures the galaxy-wide extermination of the Jedi Order. The climactic battle between Obi Wan and the newly crowned Darth Vader is some of the best fight choreography in the series, and you can feel the tension between the two. Plus, it’s kind of satisfying to see Christensen’s whiny acting put to an end by some lava. The final highlight of the film comes right at the end. With Vader saved by his Master, we witness his first moments in the suit.

The low point of the film unfortunately never ends. Lucas’ decision to green screen every scene is not only clearly visible, but also gets old really quickly. In some cases, you find yourself questioning why he didn’t build the occasional set here and there.

The end of one era, the beginning of another. That’s the message Revenge of the Sith is telling. You know who’s gonna survive, but you still want to know how and why everything changes. Plus, you doesn’t want to see the Master of Light fight the Master of Dark. Yoda vs the Emporer is the fight you never knew you wanted to see. The movie does have boring scenes, but they’re far fewer in number than Episode 1 or 2.

7 - 7.5/10, depending on how much on Hayden Christensen’s whiny acting you can stand.

If you want to see what could have been, watch Belated Media's version here...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wKqH6vlGHU

And that's how you end a movie.