Epinions Time Capsule: 'Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith' Movie Review
Author’s Note: This is
the original review of Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith that I wrote on May 19, 2005…the day the
film premiered on wide release. I wrote it for Epinions as soon as I got home.
As a result, it captures the emotions I felt on that day and my initial
impressions about what at the time was the final Star Wars movie. The “title crawl” I came up with,
obviously, is not the one from the actual film. I could, of course, have looked
up the text from the movie’s crawl and replicated it here, but I wanted to present
my review as I wrote it on that day.
Pros: Stronger-than-usual Prequel narrative;
exciting action sequences; great score
Cons: Padme and Anakin storyline weaker than
expected.
And you, young Skywalker, we will watch your career with
great interest. -- Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to Anakin Skywalker, Star
Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Someday I'll be the most powerful Jedi ever! I promise you. I will even learn to stop people from dying. -- Anakin Skywalker to Padme, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
At last, the Jedi are no more. -- Darth Sidious to Yoda, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Not if anything I have to say about it. Yoda to Darth Sidious, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....
The Republic is in mortal peril. After a thousand years of relative peace and democratic rule, the galaxy is now torn in two as the Clone Wars continue to bring death and destruction to countless worlds.
In spite of the best efforts of the Jedi Order to win the war against Count Dooku and his nefarious ally General Grievous, their ranks shrink with each passing battle. Many Knights are killed, while others fall to the Dark Side.
Worse still, the identity of the mysterious Darth Sidious continues to elude the Jedi Council. If the Sith Lord isn't discovered and stopped in time, the Republic is doomed to fall....
Forget, if you can, the disappointment you probably felt with the sometimes ponderous political scheming (and the often exasperating antics of Jar Jar Binks) of Episode I: The Phantom Menace or the somewhat less-than-impressive rebel-without-a-cause (and sometimes wooden) portrayal of Anakin Skywalker in Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
And forget them you will, as Yoda would say, for Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is the prequel that comes closest to recapturing the spirit of George Lucas' Classic Star Wars Trilogy. Epic in scale and at the same time intensely poignant, Sith closes the Prequel Trilogy the way most fans imagined it would, full of dogfights, ground battles, lightsaber duels, and the tragic conversion of Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight, into Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith.
Revenge of the Sith's opening scene (following the traditional card of a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.... and the opening crawl underscored by John Williams' Star Wars Main Title) depicts a dizzying space battle over Coruscant. General Grievous and Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) have imprisoned Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) aboard the Separatists' huge flagship; it's up to Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his former Padawan Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) to fly through clouds of enemy fighters and force their way aboard Grievous' ship to rescue the leader of the Galactic Senate. And in a series of cliffhanger-styled sequences
that not only evoke the spirit of Episode IV: A New Hope but also the Indiana Jones series, the Kenobi-Skywalker duo rescue the seemingly frail and aged Palpatine and return him to Coruscant.
Anakin is hailed as a hero by the Senate and the Jedi Council, but he and Palpatine share a dreadful secret -- young Skywalker, facing Count Dooku alone while Obi-Wan lay unconscious, has used his aggressive feelings and cold-bloodedly executed the erstwhile Dark Lord of the Sith...egged on by Palpatine and empowered by the sheer strength of the dark side of the Force. It's an act that leaves Anakin both remorseful ("It's not the Jedi way," he tells the Chancellor) yet thirsting for more power.
Behind Anakin's quest for power is his inability to cope with loss -- the weakness Master Yoda sensed in him as far back as their first meeting in Episode I and the one chink in the young Jedi's armor that Palpatine, the Clark Kentish-identity of Sith Lord Darth Sidious, can exploit. For it is to Palpatine and not Yoda or Obi-Wan that Anakin has talked about his true feelings and actions, including the massacre of the Tusken Raiders who killed his mother in Attack of the Clones
Skywalker's turmoil is not eased when Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), the Naboo Senator he married in secret three years before, greets him with the news that she's pregnant with his child. Normally she would be happy, but Anakin is still a member of the Jedi Order; should the Council discover that Skywalker has broken the Jedi Code and formed an attachment and is a father-to-be, he will be expelled.
Worse is to come as a result of Padme's pregnancy; not only does Anakin have another secret to keep from Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi Council, but the dreams -- premonitions or Force visions -- that plague his nights are chilling. After one particularly bad night, he informs Padme, "You die in childbirth." When Padme asks about the fate of the baby, Anakin shakes his head; "I don't know," he says.
Fear leads to the dark side, Yoda had said to nine-year-old Anakin in Episode I, and it is certainly Anakin's fear of loss that is his gateway to his downfall. As Revenge of the Sith painfully reveals, Skywalker is never forced to submit to Darth Sidious; Anakin makes deliberate choices...not to kill the Sith Lord when he at last reveals himself....to accept dark side training in order to gain forbidden knowledge...to turn his back on the Jedi Council and take on the identity of Darth Vader. Yes, Palpatine/Sidious has manipulated events in order to achieve this seduction to the dark side of the Force, but it is Anakin's choice to join the Sith Order and betray everyone he cares about and everything he once stood for.
As I said earlier, Sith is the Prequel Episode that comes closest to replicating the pacing and spirit of the Classic Trilogy. It has the strength of A New Hope's linear narrative and the emotional depth of The Empire Strikes Back. And like Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith takes all the loose ends of the prequel Trilogy and ties them all up in a satisfying fashion. Although the end of the film is pre-destined -- the Jedi Order is nearly annihilated, the Republic falls and becomes the Galactic Empire, and the events that lead to A New Hope are set in motion -- its structure fits naturally and beautifully into the now-complete six Episode Star Wars narrative.
Visually, Sith is stunning; the opening dogfight over Coruscant outdoes even the Death Star battles of A New Hope and Jedi, and all the action sequences are eye-poppingly amazing. Particularly worth watching are the various lightsaber duels, especially the one between the half-droid, half-alien Grievous and Obi-Wan; it's hard to top the scene when Kenobi is up against a four-armed opponent who's holding four lightsabers.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Star Wars movie without a John Williams score, and Episode III is no exception. Here Williams blends themes from the Prequel and Classic Trilogies and joins them to new cues such as the rousing "Battle of the Heroes" and the quietly dark-and-ominous "Palpatine's Teachings."
Although it never quite reaches Shakespearean heights of drama and some bits smack of 1930s serial clumsiness -- the scenes betwen Padme and Anakin, for instance, lack the substance one would hope for in a film intended to be "Titanic in Space" -- Revenge of the Sith completes Lucas' space opera on a very satisfying note.
Someday I'll be the most powerful Jedi ever! I promise you. I will even learn to stop people from dying. -- Anakin Skywalker to Padme, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
At last, the Jedi are no more. -- Darth Sidious to Yoda, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Not if anything I have to say about it. Yoda to Darth Sidious, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....
The Republic is in mortal peril. After a thousand years of relative peace and democratic rule, the galaxy is now torn in two as the Clone Wars continue to bring death and destruction to countless worlds.
In spite of the best efforts of the Jedi Order to win the war against Count Dooku and his nefarious ally General Grievous, their ranks shrink with each passing battle. Many Knights are killed, while others fall to the Dark Side.
Worse still, the identity of the mysterious Darth Sidious continues to elude the Jedi Council. If the Sith Lord isn't discovered and stopped in time, the Republic is doomed to fall....
Forget, if you can, the disappointment you probably felt with the sometimes ponderous political scheming (and the often exasperating antics of Jar Jar Binks) of Episode I: The Phantom Menace or the somewhat less-than-impressive rebel-without-a-cause (and sometimes wooden) portrayal of Anakin Skywalker in Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
And forget them you will, as Yoda would say, for Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is the prequel that comes closest to recapturing the spirit of George Lucas' Classic Star Wars Trilogy. Epic in scale and at the same time intensely poignant, Sith closes the Prequel Trilogy the way most fans imagined it would, full of dogfights, ground battles, lightsaber duels, and the tragic conversion of Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight, into Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith.
Revenge of the Sith's opening scene (following the traditional card of a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.... and the opening crawl underscored by John Williams' Star Wars Main Title) depicts a dizzying space battle over Coruscant. General Grievous and Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) have imprisoned Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) aboard the Separatists' huge flagship; it's up to Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his former Padawan Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) to fly through clouds of enemy fighters and force their way aboard Grievous' ship to rescue the leader of the Galactic Senate. And in a series of cliffhanger-styled sequences
that not only evoke the spirit of Episode IV: A New Hope but also the Indiana Jones series, the Kenobi-Skywalker duo rescue the seemingly frail and aged Palpatine and return him to Coruscant.
Anakin is hailed as a hero by the Senate and the Jedi Council, but he and Palpatine share a dreadful secret -- young Skywalker, facing Count Dooku alone while Obi-Wan lay unconscious, has used his aggressive feelings and cold-bloodedly executed the erstwhile Dark Lord of the Sith...egged on by Palpatine and empowered by the sheer strength of the dark side of the Force. It's an act that leaves Anakin both remorseful ("It's not the Jedi way," he tells the Chancellor) yet thirsting for more power.
Behind Anakin's quest for power is his inability to cope with loss -- the weakness Master Yoda sensed in him as far back as their first meeting in Episode I and the one chink in the young Jedi's armor that Palpatine, the Clark Kentish-identity of Sith Lord Darth Sidious, can exploit. For it is to Palpatine and not Yoda or Obi-Wan that Anakin has talked about his true feelings and actions, including the massacre of the Tusken Raiders who killed his mother in Attack of the Clones
Skywalker's turmoil is not eased when Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), the Naboo Senator he married in secret three years before, greets him with the news that she's pregnant with his child. Normally she would be happy, but Anakin is still a member of the Jedi Order; should the Council discover that Skywalker has broken the Jedi Code and formed an attachment and is a father-to-be, he will be expelled.
Worse is to come as a result of Padme's pregnancy; not only does Anakin have another secret to keep from Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi Council, but the dreams -- premonitions or Force visions -- that plague his nights are chilling. After one particularly bad night, he informs Padme, "You die in childbirth." When Padme asks about the fate of the baby, Anakin shakes his head; "I don't know," he says.
Fear leads to the dark side, Yoda had said to nine-year-old Anakin in Episode I, and it is certainly Anakin's fear of loss that is his gateway to his downfall. As Revenge of the Sith painfully reveals, Skywalker is never forced to submit to Darth Sidious; Anakin makes deliberate choices...not to kill the Sith Lord when he at last reveals himself....to accept dark side training in order to gain forbidden knowledge...to turn his back on the Jedi Council and take on the identity of Darth Vader. Yes, Palpatine/Sidious has manipulated events in order to achieve this seduction to the dark side of the Force, but it is Anakin's choice to join the Sith Order and betray everyone he cares about and everything he once stood for.
As I said earlier, Sith is the Prequel Episode that comes closest to replicating the pacing and spirit of the Classic Trilogy. It has the strength of A New Hope's linear narrative and the emotional depth of The Empire Strikes Back. And like Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith takes all the loose ends of the prequel Trilogy and ties them all up in a satisfying fashion. Although the end of the film is pre-destined -- the Jedi Order is nearly annihilated, the Republic falls and becomes the Galactic Empire, and the events that lead to A New Hope are set in motion -- its structure fits naturally and beautifully into the now-complete six Episode Star Wars narrative.
Visually, Sith is stunning; the opening dogfight over Coruscant outdoes even the Death Star battles of A New Hope and Jedi, and all the action sequences are eye-poppingly amazing. Particularly worth watching are the various lightsaber duels, especially the one between the half-droid, half-alien Grievous and Obi-Wan; it's hard to top the scene when Kenobi is up against a four-armed opponent who's holding four lightsabers.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Star Wars movie without a John Williams score, and Episode III is no exception. Here Williams blends themes from the Prequel and Classic Trilogies and joins them to new cues such as the rousing "Battle of the Heroes" and the quietly dark-and-ominous "Palpatine's Teachings."
Although it never quite reaches Shakespearean heights of drama and some bits smack of 1930s serial clumsiness -- the scenes betwen Padme and Anakin, for instance, lack the substance one would hope for in a film intended to be "Titanic in Space" -- Revenge of the Sith completes Lucas' space opera on a very satisfying note.
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