Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Movie Review

Dec 12, 2015
revenge of the sith review






In celebration of the release of the new 'Star Wars' movie this December 17, we look back the previous installments of the franchise leading up to 'The Force Awakens', the seventh installment of the saga. To read our coverage, click here.

Revenge of the Sith’ is widely considered as the watchable film in the Star Wars prequels. Sure, this is where we actually get to the main point of the whole trilogy—the birth of Darth Vader. While we got hints of Anakin slowly tempting in to the dark side with him avenging the death of his mother in Attack of the Clones, it was not enough to consider that this young man will eventually become the most celebrated villain in cinematic history. But this movie is where George Lucas should’ve only made instead of a three-parter since the last two is literally point-less.
Right from the opening space battle, the movie is already looking better than the visuals of the last two movies. Not because ‘Revenge of the Sith’ is a newer movie, but because finally Lucas decided to hire the best team to create VFX and enhance the sequence to make it more appealing than the plastic-like effects of Episodes I and II. The battle was a set-up to the rescue of Chancellor Palpatine being held captive by Count Dooku. A lightsaber fight was performed between Obi-Wan, Anakin and Dooku for the second time, while R2-D2 set two droids on fire with the help of his own oil. Both sequences are already looking better than its predecessor and a lot of fun to watch.
revenge of the sith review
Before the Count Dooku, Obi-Wan and Anakin was finished, Anakin sliced off Dooku’s arm the same way Dooku did on him the last time. But it was Anakin being unsure to whether kill Dooku or not that made it all better, with Palpatine whispering “do it! do it!” in the background. It is the first time Palpatine saw that Anakin is going to be a real player on the dark side, and the hint of the Emperor in his voice was chilling. The acting by Hayden Christensen as Anakin is expectedly wooden, and almost ruin such great scene.
revenge of the sith review
The Wookies got the brief spotlight in their home planet, but should it really be Chewbacca standing next to Yoda? Then again, Lucas tried to squeeze in every single remnant of the original trilogy into the prequels. From the thousand Wookies present, putting Chewbacca for the sake of fan service instead of any Wookie felt very unnecessary. Heck, there was even preliminary plans of having a young Han Solo somewhere here. Wouldn’t that look sicker?
revenge of the sith review
What the whole prequel trilogy has gotten wrong is the lack of play in Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship. The lightsaber scene at the end of A New Hope felt emotional because we know somewhere inside these two that they knew each other before. But wouldn’t that scene be more affecting and maybe emotional if Lucas create a more layered storyline between these two’s friendship instead of them complaining and whining of everything. It’s a real miss, since you suddenly can’t help but to not care about the two of them fighting to death at the end of this movie. It’s supposed to be very powerful since Obi-Wan have an intimate relation with Anakin, and he is the fruition of Qui-Jon’s last wish. Being his padawan is already a big thing for Anakin, as Obi-Wan have become a father figure to him in some sorts, supporting him and Padme, especially their children after both of them died.  The scene where Obi-Wan screaming “You’re supposed to be the chosen one” to Anakin, who is set on fire was disappointingly empty. And Ewan McGregor clearly was the only plausible thing here.

The transformation of Anakin being a Sith lord felt very rushed. And his decision of turning into the dark side because of a short talk with Palpatine about how Siths can profess reliving the dead wasn’t enough. Transforming into a different should be a product of many things, just as Luke was giving himself to the Empire just like his father. There was no internal conflict in Anakin, but only a plain desperation of wanting his wife to be alive.
revenge of the sith review
Revenge of the Sith’ is a decent movie because it is the only time where it goes for the main point of the whole prequel trilogy. But not enough to make an effective film because it doesn’t give its all realizing Anakin’s transformation as Darth Vader. It could’ve been a worthy film to stand against the original trilogy, but it clearly doesn’t want to.

The geek rates it 6/10!

P.S.: If Palpatine can do back-flips and tumbling, can other sith lords (including Darth Vader) do the same?

NEXT: Star Wars
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