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Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith closes out the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy by showing us the final descent of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) into the Dark Side. Set three years after the events of Attack of the Clones, the film follows Anakin's relationship with Padmé (Natalie Portman) and his strained friendship with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) while the Republic is in the middle of a full-scale war. Meanwhile, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) uses any opportunity to poison Anakin's mind and lure him to his side.
I've seen this film a couple of times, but I've been continuing my rewatch of this trilogy with one of my kids. I often cite this one as the best of this trio, although I think I've warmed up to The Phantom Menace more than to this one. Still, Lucas manages to polish a lot of the rough edges from the previous film and the result is, well, competent enough. The dialogue is slightly better, the CGI isn't as intrusive, plus it has most of the conflicts boiling down to their resolutions, so to speak.
My main issue with this part is that everything feels so rushed and forced that there's barely room to breathe. Evidently Lucas has a lot of marks to check off, so in order to get there, he has to jump a lot of hoops and take a lot of narrative shortcuts, hindering the overall dramatic effect of things like the Jedi Purge or Anakin's Fall. This is particularly notable in the last act where there are a hundred things happening, all at once. You can get whiplash from the way Lucas has to jump between them all.
If it were up to me, I would have given a smaller scale to the final fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan to allow its emotional baggage to come through, instead of having them jumping through endless rivers of lava and floating rocks. Still, like with the two previous entries, McGregor holds his own as the best among the three leads while McDiarmid hams it up really nice. Is it enough to call this "good"? Well, good is a point of view.
Grade:
STAR WARS: EPISODE III
REVENGE OF THE SITH
(2005, Lucas)
REVENGE OF THE SITH
(2005, Lucas)
"Good is a point of view, Anakin. The Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost every way, including their quest for greater power."
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith closes out the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy by showing us the final descent of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) into the Dark Side. Set three years after the events of Attack of the Clones, the film follows Anakin's relationship with Padmé (Natalie Portman) and his strained friendship with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) while the Republic is in the middle of a full-scale war. Meanwhile, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) uses any opportunity to poison Anakin's mind and lure him to his side.
I've seen this film a couple of times, but I've been continuing my rewatch of this trilogy with one of my kids. I often cite this one as the best of this trio, although I think I've warmed up to The Phantom Menace more than to this one. Still, Lucas manages to polish a lot of the rough edges from the previous film and the result is, well, competent enough. The dialogue is slightly better, the CGI isn't as intrusive, plus it has most of the conflicts boiling down to their resolutions, so to speak.
My main issue with this part is that everything feels so rushed and forced that there's barely room to breathe. Evidently Lucas has a lot of marks to check off, so in order to get there, he has to jump a lot of hoops and take a lot of narrative shortcuts, hindering the overall dramatic effect of things like the Jedi Purge or Anakin's Fall. This is particularly notable in the last act where there are a hundred things happening, all at once. You can get whiplash from the way Lucas has to jump between them all.
If it were up to me, I would have given a smaller scale to the final fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan to allow its emotional baggage to come through, instead of having them jumping through endless rivers of lava and floating rocks. Still, like with the two previous entries, McGregor holds his own as the best among the three leads while McDiarmid hams it up really nice. Is it enough to call this "good"? Well, good is a point of view.
Grade: