John Reviews Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (7 out of 10)

On Thursday I sat in a theater with about 150 other invited people (mostly press) to view a special screening of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, the film I had been waiting for since the first time I saw the original Star Wars as a kid.

Let me preface this by saying I enjoyed the first 2 Episodes (Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones). No, The Phantom Menace was not a good movie… but I still enjoyed watching it. And unlike many people, I actually STILL believe Attack of the Clones was a good film (with a couple of major weaknesses).

I’ll try to keep this short.

The Story
The basic story of Revenge of the Sith was (in my opinion) the best laid out story of all the Star Wars films. The political maneuverings, the moral dilemmas, the torn loyalties, and ultimately Skywalker’s decent into the dark side. If you were to read it as a 5 page synopsis, the story and plot stands out as exceptional ones.

The Dialog
Easily the weakest part of the first 2 prequels was the HORRIBLE dialog. Lines that were so cheesy you couldn’t believe someone didn’t say to Lucas “You don’t seriously want her to say THAT do you?” However, the dialog in Episode III takes a MAJOR leap forward. Easily the best scripted of the prequels…. not that’s not saying much, but it’s point that should be made. Anakin’s lines make him sound much more… mature, powerful, serious… something Star Wars fans wanted to see in the second prequel.

The Visual Effects
WOW! Outstanding! Fantastic! Once again the good folks at ILM have outdone themselves. The opening space battle had my jaw on the floor the entire time. Now, having said that, it’s a fair criticism to say that George Lucas has come to overly rely on Visual Effects. Often throwing in VFX shots just for the sake of having them in there and thus distracting from the scene. But still… very nice.

Not Enough Wookies
One of the things I was most looking forward to seeing was a Wookie army kicking some serious ass. I didn’t care whose ass it was. I would have been fine seeing them kick some elderly war vets asses around… I just wanted to see a Wookie rampage! However, we never get it. Sadly all we’re treated to is a few quick shots of Wookies shooting bowcasters and the HORRIBLY ANNOYING obligatory tarzan yell as they swing from a vine on to a droid army tank. How stupid.

The Relationship Between Palpatine and Anakin
The strongest element of the film was the nature of the relationship between the future Emperor and the future Vader. The scenes with the two of them together have you gripped the entire time. And something quite surprising… you realize that Palpatine isn’t JUST trying to manipulate Anakin… but that he actually cares about him. The conversations between the two raise some wonderful questions about the nature of evil… how the good guys do not always act so good, and how the bad guys can sometimes be seen as heroic.

Padmé Sucks
This one really surprised me. The worst part of this film… and that part that I’m sure will ruin Revenge of the Sith for many people is Padmé’s character. Every single scene (withouth exception) that she is in is a total waste of film. The lines she had were worse than the previous two films put together and made her sound far more annoying than Jar Jar ever was. As a matter of fact, this is the first thing I said walking out of the theater: ” Wow, Padmé is the new Jar Jar”. I’m not exaggerating here folks… she is just terrible. It’s so bad that about half way through the film you visibly cringe when you see her come on screen… because you know it’s going to be bad.

The Palpatine / Yoda Confrontation
Oh yes! This is a fantastic fight!!! From the first time I heard that there was going to be new Star Wars movies made I hoped that we would see the Emperor fight Yoda… and oh sweet happiness this fight delivers!

The Vader / Obi-Wan Confrontation
Simply put, the final confrontation between Anakin and Obi-Wan was everything it should have been. Not just a battle between 2 masters… but also a heart breaking conflict between 2 friends. The fight was magnificent, and long, and carried all of the anguish, anger, sadness and fury you have imagined it would. It is the fight I have envisioned in my head since learning the two once battled a long time ago in the first Star Wars.

Something of an Unsatisfying Ending
The conversion of Anakin ot the dark side was wonderful… but the last 5 minutes of the film… tying up some loose ends… was done a little weak. Some important things are left unexplained, and some important conversations that should have been in there are left out.

Final Conclusion
Ok… here it is. I really enjoyed watching Revenge of the Sith. And yes, it is quite a good film. However, the scenes with Padmé alone are enough to give you flashbacks of the worst parts of the first 2 sequels, and thus lower your overall enjoyment ofthe movie.

Still… it is a strong film with a strong story, great effects and much improved dialog (with the exception of anything with Padmé in it). Star Wars fans should be quite happy… and non-Star Wars fans will enjoy as well.

Overall… I give Revenge of the Sith a solid 7 out of 10 (would have been a 9 if they just totally took out Padmé or re-wrote all her pathetic dialog).

Go see it… and may the force be with you

  • Hewa

    Wow John you have changed your mind a lot throughout the years

  • Jeff Harvey

    John, reading this review, you seem to have changed your tone over the years. In this review you state that you enjoyed the first two prequels and almost gave Revenge of the Sith a near-perfect score if it weren’t for Padme. Why now have you changed your opinion of the movies completely? I understand you still like aspects of them, but you certainly don’t seem to enjoy them whatsoever and wouldn’t dream of giving them anything like a 7/10 nowadays. Just curious why you changed your mind.

    • Eric Prajogo

      Yeah I’m wondering that too.

  • Nick

    “I would have been fine seeing them kick some elderly war vets asses around…”

    Hey asshole, if it werent for those elderly war vets, you wouldnt have the luxury of sitting on your fucking ass rating star wars movies all day/

  • no one in particular

    (small spoil alert)

    honestly, as Darth Vader was being tilted up from his table for the first time as he faces the audience, I could have sworn that he was about to be holding a huge Pepsi cup or a Whopper from Burger King in one of his hands.

    c’mon george. you’re killing me here.

  • Norm Hill

    For those who are in a mood to see Episode 3 get bashed,
    here is a more highly critical review that is interesting:
    http://www.montrealmirror.com/2005/051905/film2.html

    We should print it out, and staple-gun it onto Lucas’ front door.
    I still believe that what Lucas helped bring about (special
    effects via the empty blue room, no more props required) is what
    makes 1-2-3 so boring compared to 4-5-6. In the original trio
    of films, they had to BUILD every set, every costume, and every
    model. The surroudnings inspired the actors, and the actors
    were then natural.

    Now they are in empty rooms, but told “you are on the bridge of
    a mighty star destroyer, so act impressed”.

    They have saved some money on set-building, but they have wrecked
    the movie as a consequence. Hope that James Bond corp. doesn’t
    do the same thing, they spent more than anybody creating sets that
    fueled their films.

    One last concern to bring up: This latest episode 3 is a dangerous
    regurgitation of the greatness of 4-5-6. Vader’s “NOOOO” oh yes,
    that is a regurgitation of Episode 5, with the unnerving statement
    of Vader being Luke’s father. The appearance of the evil dark Lord
    of the Sith? A regurgitation of the appearance of Vader’s boss.

    What we have here is a disappointing corporate calculation, figuring
    that the prior moments sold tickets before (“Noooo!”) so surely
    they can string them together and sell even more tickets now.
    They do not understand that movies are supposed to be about
    breaking new territory. This episode 3 was by, and for,
    the bean-counters in the accounting department, NOT for the filmmakers
    and audiences who caused the 1-2-3 phenomenon. Revenge of the Sith
    is no more exciting (and is highly equivalent to) one of those
    “Charlie’s Angels” remakes.
    (hey it sold tickets before, so it should sell them again…)

    If the bean-counters were in charge back in ’77, Star Wars wouldn’t
    have even gotten a rejection letter, the proposal would have been
    tossed out without a 2nd thought !! Later dudes.

  • http://ww.abl.com.au marco

    I loved it, mostly… Vader’s “Nooooo.” was terrible and made me cringe in embarassment after so many poignant scenes. When Ani accepted his fate after Samuel L died I was at a loss as I thought he needed more convincing.
    I loved empire but I think when the ROTS dvd comes out I will enjoy this one even more. I had no problem with Portmans character, more so with artoo and the attempted comedy…
    Awesome special effects and generally a great story line far removed from the horrors of Phantom. Enjoy it for what it is.

  • Chris

    I remember seeing the original trilogy on the big screen many, many years ago and they no doubt rank as some of my favourite movies of all time.

    So when they announced they’d make Ep’s 1-3 in the late 90’s I was excited. Then I watched them…

    Don’t get me wrong, they were good. But they weren’t Ep’s 4-6 good.

    For me personally, what I felt Ep’s 1 and 2 lacked was the fast paced adventure of the originals. What made Ep’s like TESB so good was the slicing of the larger ‘episode’ into smaller chapters… ie Luke and the Wampa, the Battle of Hoth, the Falcon in the Asteroids, so on and so on.

    Ep’s 1 and 2 lacked this. And having a good knowledge of the expanded universe and the prequel stories (and the stories long, long before the prequels), I understand that politics played an enormous role in the first two Ep’s. But I always felt unsatisfied by them. As is they were just a warm up.

    Having seen ROTS last night, I know what they were warming up to.

    Finally, this film recaptures the structure that made the original trilogy such memorable movies. It was less politics, and more traditional character development (the choice between good and evil, friendships falling apart etc). Sure, the characters are a little wooden, but they are more in line with the original trilogy which had characters based on traditional storytelling heroes which is what made them compelling.

    I was impressed (and dismayed, but I’ll get to that) by the handling of Anakin’s decent into evil. I felt sad for him. You realise he only made his choices to protect those he loves, albeit misguided and poor choices at that. Although I felt his actual acceptance of the Sith following Mace’s death was a little too fast (as in “sure, I’ll give myself to the Sith) and you didn’t really get the impression that it was a difficult decision that he had to wrestle with (although this was implied when he was looking out the window of the Jedi Council, contemplating stopping Mace).

    Once he accepted the darkside, Hayden Christensen handled it well. The dialogue between Anakin and Obi Wan was poignent (even though it was essentially comic book scripting) and you really got a sense of his hate.

    Then there was the “Vader becomes machine” sequence. I thought it was handled well through the operating table, attaching the legs, and the clostrophobic POV of the mask being fitted.

    I was even impressed with the silence before the first “breath”. I was still impressed with the Frankenstein step of the table (clearly he’s not used these legs before) and I had the distinct feeling he had a case of “what have I become”. But then the moment was shattered with the “Noooooo” which I felt was the worst part of the movie, sadly, at the worst possible time. 20 something years of waiting for this moment, and it winds up sounding like a high school production of Macbeth.

    I mean you could tell they’d adapted James Earl Jones dialogue to suit Hayden Christensen’s delivery style but come on. Why he couldn’t have bellowed or screamed or even said nothing at all I don’t know. When I saw it, everything I felt in that scene dropped and I though “George, what are you DOING?” I meandid no one in editing that scene go “hey, do you think this is a little hammy?”.

    Sure, Vader never was the most articulate person, but he still managed a pained grunt when Luke cuts his hand off down the track.

    Maybe it was just bad timing, in such an important scene, and right near the end (as you always remember the last parts more clearly). I can only hope it’s fixed for the DVD (which I doubt).

    Overall it’s by far the best of the new films, and it’s close to the original ones. But I think a few basic flaws (mostly dialogue) could have been averted.

    It’s just a shame that a good movie was let down by 1.5 seconds on bad dialogue.

  • JeffPom

    I’m sorry - I liked AOTC.

    I thought it had a lot more plot to weave through than Phantom EVER DREAMED of having… and more than ROTS.

    Okay - the Love Scenes were BEYOND HOKEY… but good movie.

    ROTS had great fights, great building tension… but while Anakin’s Love for (obsession for) Padme was great - the scenes were “eh.” Good - but not great.

    Then again - there’s not much for her in this one - this movie is about Anakin and Obi-Wan and the Republic - not Padme.

    The transformation - the release of anger by Anakin - was great. But - If the clones were being controlled - why didn’t Palatine just kill off the Jedi a LONG time ago?

    I too thought the last 5 minutes was “Quick - here’s this loose end, here’s that loose end… there now go see Star Wars - New Hope.”

    I want to point out that Lucas said a long time ago that the first three would make “eh” movies - that’s why he decided to start with episode IV. That’s probably why Phantom sucked. All Background information…

    I think our expectations are too great.

    Good movie - great transformation into Darth… (Except for that whole “NOoooooo!!!!!!” thing that looked like Frankenstein coming to life and had OVERACTING and MELODRAMA written all over it!)