Revenge of the Sith is a great Star Wars film. It seems dear and sincere to the bone, regardless of some sloppy dialogue (and yes it is sloppy) that movie is all heart and I wouldn't believe it if a Star Wars fan told me he hated Episode 3. I think it's absolutely wonderful.
I can't say that I hate it, per se. It's clearly the best of the prequels by quite a bit, and as I mentioned above, there are some great scenes. However, I think the opening scene is a good way to illustrate what is wrong with the film as a whole, and with the prequels in general:
The words crawl by and then the camera pans down, as in each
Star Wars film. We zoom in on two Jedi starfighters buzzing along next to a Star Destroyer. It's vintage
Star Wars. For a few seconds, it's magic; the theme music swells and the kid in us jumps for joy. Then the two ships plunge over the side of the ship and the whole thing goes over the proverbial cliff. Our senses are blasted with too much all at once. Hundreds of ships at all different angles with dozens of explosions and effects at every distance level. I get what they were going for, but there is a right way to do a big epic battle (the end of
Return of the Jedi) and a wrong way, which they chose to do here. The mess continues as the two Jedi fighters, which looked clean and crisp in the opening shot and they bobbed and weaved, are swarmed with a bunch of goofy little robots and dink and doink all over the place in a distracting manner. In seconds, a slick space scene becomes a cartoony mess.
This concept crops up for me over and over in the film. Too much, all at once. The final battle in
The Force Awakens, although clearly derivative of
A New Hope, never makes this error. It's hectic and epic without ever going over-the-top or smearing imagery all over the place; it's always under control.
To me, as a guy that grew up with the original trilogy, none of the prequels ever felt like Star Wars.
The Force Awakens was a return to form, a getting back to the roots, if you will, for the franchise. Above all, it was
fun again. The magic was back.
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Feeling's mutual.
I can only promise vid-skimming.
