In 1977, a single Roman numeral sparked nearly thirty years of imaginative speculation.
By dubbing his first Star Wars movie as "Episode IV," George Lucas created a lingering desire in the hearts of fans like myself to see the implied existence of Episodes I-III made into reality. The strength of this wish was only amplified by the original trilogy's many references to a hidden backstory involving the Jedi career of Anakin Skywalker, the fall of the Old Republic, and something called the "Clone Wars." It didn't help that Lucas spoke frequently of this history himself, suggesting that its complete plotline had been constructed in his head from the very beginning. (Star Wars was not, as many believe, based on an original series of 9 books, nor had George Lucas written a comprehensive script for any of his prequels prior to their being made.) For the majority of our lives, I and others silently and eagerly asked Lucas, "Why did Luke's father turn to the dark side?" "How did the Empire take power?" and "What happened to the Jedi?"
Though the release of Episode I in 1999 ensured that the questions Star Wars die-hards had would finally be answered, it is in Episode III - Revenge of the Sith that this promise is ultimately fulfilled. And whereas its two predecessors often fell short of living up to the Star Wars legacy thanks to some poor character development, the final intallment of the series is great enough to earn its place alongside the original trilogy in the epic movie pantheon.
If watching Revenge of the Sith doesn't fill you with a growing sense of dread as you watch Anakin Skywalker gradually succumb to the temptations of dark side power, then I question your ability to emotionally respond to movies. From Anakin's initial tendencies to give in to rage and fear to his chilling adoption of the name Darth Vader, Revenge spares no thrills in bringing you to its inevitable tragic conclusion. This spiral downward culminates in the long awaited battle between Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor at the top of his game. When McGregor laments that Anakin was "supposed to bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness," I knew that we had experienced the birth of another one of the saga's unforgettable moments.
As its script comes straight from the pen of George Lucas (unlike The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which had more polished screenwriters), some of the flaws we've come to expect in the prequels still haunts the film. The romantic dialogue between Anakin and his wife Padme still sounds excruciatingly forced, and we never actually feel anything more than a factual knowledge of the love between them. Even so, Episode III steers clear of some of the other pitfalls that plagued The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Each moment of the movie fits appropriately within the fantasy Star Wars universe, and gone are some of the intrusions of modern day American society such as Episode I's out-of-place pod race sportscasters or Episode II's misfitting diner on Coruscant.
However, perhaps the greatest testament of Revenge of the Sith's success as a piece of the Star Wars saga is its ability to excite you about re-watching the rest of the series that is linked to it...Episodes I and II included.
Kize grade: A
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3 comments:
While the basic Anakin story arc was the best part of RotS, and alone would probably have made a good movie, it is unfortunately watered down with too much bumfoolery to become a true classic.
For example: the entire first third of the movie. General Greivous is the most pointless sub-villain since the Merovingian, and the premise of the entire opening battle makes no sense. If Palpatine is manipulating the droid armies, what was the point of having himself kidnapped and rescued? Perhaps it was to confront Anakin with the chance to kill dooku, and yet it seems an obnoxiously complex way to accomplish this goal, not to mention that it could have easily ended in his death many times over. While an epic ship battle over Coruscant would have been a cool thing to see, it would have worked better under a less forced premise and at the end of the movie.
Greivous, useless at his inception, is no more compelling later on when we are forced to watch his 4 lightsaber tactics get totally owned, or see a bizarre chase between a giant wheel with legs and a screaching iguana.
The second most useless part of the story is the battle on Kashyyyk. Granted, there is nothing particularly wrong with a gratuitous battle scene, but you won't find any in the original trilogy. The nerd excuse is that we're in the clone wars and there was a lot of fighting going on. But if you like that feeling you get when every part of a movie matters and draws you inexorably towards the conclusion, you won't get it here. Lucas tries to win points by showing a group of popular alians and throwing in a cameo for a character from the original trilogy, but in the end having a more logical reason to get Yoda out of Coruscant would have been better.
Then perhaps the smallest, but most useless of the pointless parts of the movie was when Yoda and Obi Wan decide to go back to the jedi temple to turn off some stupid beacon. The minute I heard this I thought "whoops, looks like they wanted to add one more land to the video game version!" Yes, I understand this allows them to figure out that Anakin is evil, but it's not necessary since Yoda apparently already knows, and there are any number of other ways it could have been accomplished. Even seeing Yoda hurl his lightsaber through a stormtrooper's chest wasn't worth it to justify this silliness.
Since the Kize admits the dialogue was bad I won't go into my problems there in great detail, I'll just list some of my favorite bad lines.
A: You're so beautiful.
P: It's because I'm so in love.
A: No, it's because I'm so in love with YOU.
A: I should have known the jedi were trying to take over! (who the hell says "take over" once they are older than 12?)
O: Anakin, Palpatine is evil!
A: From my point of view the jedi are evil! (thanks for the reletivistic BS anakin, shut your mouth and go back to fighting. And how retarded do you have to be to consider the guy who told you to slaughter little kids morally superior to anybody?)
Despite all this, the movie was better than the first two, although that isn't hard. The best moment of the prequals is still when Palpatine and his entourage are looking out over the clone armies being sent out while the Emperial March plays, although the slaughter of the jedi in 3 takes a close second.
In the end RotS is like Anne Coulter: really hot until she opens her mouth.
I have to agree with anonymous. I was somewhat disappointed by the final chapter. I thought that the remake of The Longest Yard was far better, but that's just me (I guess being a trekkie also biases my opinion a little).
I would suggest to anonymous though that it is cowardly to speak ill of someone and remain anonymous. Harsh? Perhaps, but I think if you really believe something, you could at least identify yourself by some name, be it your name of birth or another identification.
Linden said:
Actually, in 1977 the original crawl had no episode designation or subtitle ("A New Hope). In his first act of Star Wars tampering and historical revision, Lucas re-issued Star Wars in the early 80's around the time Empire Strikes Back was released. In this first re-issue, the "Episode IV: A New Hope" emerged for the first time. I suppose this is around the time Lucas decided to pretend that he had a six part saga in mind from sometime shortly after he was conceived (yes, after the sperm fertilized the egg---he's THAT smart!)
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