(American Graffiti, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, THX 1138)
Producers:
George Lucas & Rick McCallum
Screenplay:
George Lucas
Cinematographer:
David Tattersall
Music:
John Williams
Cast:
Obi Wan Kenobi: Ewan MacGregor
Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader: Hayden Christensen
Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidius: Ian McDiarmid
Padme Amidala: Natalie Portman
Mace Windu: Samuel L. Jackson
Yoda (voice): Frank Oz
Senator Bale Organa: Jimmy Smitts
R2-D2: Kenny Baker
C3-PO: Anthony Daniels
Chewbacca: Peter Mayhew
Count Dooku: Christopher Lee
Darth Vader (voice): James Earl Jones (uncredited)
Baron Papanoida: George Lucas (uncredited)
The circle is complete.
It has taken nearly 30 years and 6 movies, but George Lucas' science-fantasy
saga has finally called it a day. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The
Sith (ROTS) is the final instalment of the "prequel trilogy", begun in 1999
with the infamous Phantom Menace and continued in earnest with 2002's
Attack Of The Clones.
The prequels have come under fire from most quarters, who find their
technical prowess is directly juxtaposed with their emotional emptiness.
Revenge Of The Sith, while hardly a resounding success, is at least less
guilty than its forbearers.
Episode III kicks off with an epic space battle - frustratingly absent from
the rest of the prequels - that manages to be both exciting, visually
interesting, and actually quite a good escapade for Obi Wan Kenobi
(Ewan MacGregor), Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker, well
most of the time) to be involved in.
The Clones Wars are drawing to a close, with the Separatists - led by Count
Dooku (Christopher Lee) - kidnapping Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). with
intrepid Jedi Knights Skywalker and Kenobi tasked to rescue him.
If you have no idea what The Clone Wars are, you should perhaps stop reading
here (or check out the rather excellent Cartoon Network animation on the
subject). Episode III, being the third in a series of six movies, isn't for
non-fans. If you have never heard of Jedi Knights, The Force and Darth
Vader. you have little hope of ringing much enjoyment from this movie beyond
its visual eye-candy.
Of course, ROTS is primarily concerned with the juicy aspects of the prequel
canon (nay, "the point" of their existence), namely Anakin Skywalker descent
into evil and subsequent rebirth as Darth Vader, a Dark Lord Of The Sith who
will dominate the next three movies - and the nightmares of kids born in the
1970s.
One thing you can't fault ROTS with is a sense of pace. Of course, Lucas
almost has visual Tourettes Syndrome when it comes to throwing
special-effects at a scene, and some key moments are almost drowned in
background detail.
That said, the plot (while still flimsy) is at least absent of baggage and
set-up, unlike its predecessors. Episode III is Lucas' last chance to get it
right and please those fans unhappy with Episodes I and II. For much of its
running time, ROTS succeeds on its own terms, but those looking for a giant
leap in storytelling, acting and dialogue terms are still going to be left
wanting.
The main problem with Episode III lies with its characters. Ewan MacGregor
tries admirably, and ROTS is definitely his finest moment, but his stoicism
(only broken in a climactic lightsabre battle with Skywalker) is deathly
dull.
Hayden Christen (who has proven himself a good actor elsewhere) is hampered
with more trite dialogue and a character arc that has him going from
frowning twenty-something to mass-murdering megalomaniac in a single scene.
Lucas has had three entire movies to make this transition believable, but
while Anakin is believable as an arrogant power-hungry youth. his crossing
to The Dark Side remains wholly unbelievable.
Ian McDiarmid is the only actor to escape the prequels with genuine face,
bringing a suave and evil attitude to his scenes that only great British
actors can seemingly muster. Deep down, he knows this is all hokum, but
plays to its ludicrousness with great aplomb. Save a few unfortunate facial
mugs to camera (more likely to elicit laughter than fear) McDiarmid is
undoubtedly Episode III's saving grace.
The rest of the cast barely get a half-way decent scene. Natalie Portman,
another amazingly talented actress, performs competently with the
sub-standard dialogue, while Samuel L. Jackson continues his underwhelming
work as Mace Windu. Mace gets a genuinely thrilling face-off with McDiarmid,
however, so I guess Jackson can walk away happy. Elsewhere, Star Wars
stalwart and cultural icon C3-PO (Anthony Daniels) is reduced to almost a cameo
appearance. Still, he does get the last line of the prequels and first line
of the original trilogy.
As always, the visual effects are of a superb calibre. Those ILM boys really
know their stuff, and while there continues to be a distancing effect from
CGI (generally) there's still no denying its ability to enthral an audience
through sheer scope.
However, Lucas would do well to consider that one indisputably exciting shot
consists of real actors, dressed in real Wookie costumes, running across a
real beach. The accompanying shots of CGI ships and Clone Troopers pale
beside this one moment of "old-fashioned" reality.
In a similar vein, the supposed villain of ROTS (until Lord Vader makes his
appearance) is cyborg alien General Grievous. Grievous is a fully CGI
creation that, therefore, lacks the impact of
Episode I's
Darth Maul
straightaway, and is actually conceived as a rather underwhelming baddie by
way of a hacking cough and complete lack of Jedi-slaying ability - despite
having four lightsabres to "multi-hand"...
On the plus side; John Williams' music is another fine entry, outperforming
even ILM with its ability to suck an audience into the Star Wars universe.
While Williams' work on Episode I and II was also solid enough, those scores
are undoubtedly eclipsed by Episode III - primarily because it weaves in
more recognisable themes from the Original Trilogy (the moment Vader's
Imperial March stirs will have fans shaking in their seats...)
Revenge Of The Sith is enjoyable throughout, although the excessive CGI
quickly becomes quite tiresome. Sequences that employ visuals with an
undercurrent of something approaching emotional weight work much better,
though - consider the Yoda vs Sidius encounter in the Senate, or the Kenobi
vs Skywalker showdown on the volcanic planet Mustafar for proof.
It's true that, while a large portion of Episode III remains frustratingly
overstuffed yet under-nourishing for casual audiences, the film begins to
achieve its ambition in the last half hour. Here, Lucas manages to slowly
"regress" the set-design back to the stark whites and dirty browns of 1977,
so that the final moment with Darth Vader and The Emperor aboard a Star
Destroyer seems like the perfect segue into Episode IV...
Fans will delight with many references to the Original Trilogy throughout,
with the long-awaited answers to key questions that "bridge" the two
trilogies being answered with (mostly) satisfactory results. Quite how Darth
Vader never seems to recognize C3-PO or R2-D2 will perhaps forever remain a
mystery.
Overall, as perhaps expected, Episode III is the best prequel and the fourth
best Star Wars movie ever made (mainly due to Return Of The Jedi's finale).
Technically, ROTS is mostly unrivalled, but the lack of storytelling finesse
and genuinely appealing characters means Episode III will forever be thought
of as "the best of a bad bunch".
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Star Wars Trilogy:
