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Dan Owen reviews
Star Wars Trilogy:
Star Wars Ep.I:
Star Wars Ep.II:
- Cert:
- Running time: 140 minutes
- Year: 2005
- Released: 19th May 2005
- Widescreen Ratio: 2.35:1
- Sound: DTS-ES, Dolby Digital EX 6.1, SDDS
Director:
- George Lucas
(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-fantasysaga has finally called it a day. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of TheSith (ROTS) is the final instalment of the “prequel trilogy”, begun in 1999with the infamous Phantom Menace and continued in earnest with 2002’sAttack Of The Clones.
The prequels have come under fire from most quarters, who find theirtechnical prowess is directly juxtaposed with their emotional emptiness.Revenge Of The Sith, while hardly a resounding success, is at least lessguilty than its forbearers.
Episode III kicks off with an epic space battle – frustratingly absent fromthe rest of the prequels – that manages to be both exciting, visuallyinteresting, and actually quite a good escapade for Obi Wan Kenobi(Ewan MacGregor), Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker, wellmost of the time) to be involved in.
The Clones Wars are drawing to a close, with the Separatists – led by CountDooku (Christopher Lee) – kidnapping Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). withintrepid Jedi Knights Skywalker and Kenobi tasked to rescue him.
If you have no idea what The Clone Wars are, you should perhaps stop readinghere (or check out the rather excellent Cartoon Network animation on thesubject). Episode III, being the third in a series of six movies, isn’t fornon-fans. If you have never heard of Jedi Knights, The Force and DarthVader. you have little hope of ringing much enjoyment from this movie beyondits visual eye-candy.
Of course, ROTS is primarily concerned with the juicy aspects of the prequelcanon (nay, “the point” of their existence), namely Anakin Skywalker descentinto evil and subsequent rebirth as Darth Vader, a Dark Lord Of The Sith whowill dominate the next three movies – and the nightmares of kids born in the1970s.
One thing you can’t fault ROTS with is a sense of pace. Of course, Lucasalmost has visual Tourettes Syndrome when it comes to throwingspecial-effects at a scene, and some key moments are almost drowned inbackground detail.
That said, the plot (while still flimsy) is at least absent of baggage andset-up, unlike its predecessors. Episode III is Lucas’ last chance to get itright and please those fans unhappy with Episodes I and II. For much of itsrunning time, ROTS succeeds on its own terms, but those looking for a giantleap in storytelling, acting and dialogue terms are still going to be leftwanting.
The main problem with Episode III lies with its characters. Ewan MacGregortries admirably, and ROTS is definitely his finest moment, but his stoicism(only broken in a climactic lightsabre battle with Skywalker) is deathlydull.
Hayden Christen (who has proven himself a good actor elsewhere) is hamperedwith more trite dialogue and a character arc that has him going fromfrowning twenty-something to mass-murdering megalomaniac in a single scene.Lucas has had three entire movies to make this transition believable, butwhile Anakin is believable as an arrogant power-hungry youth. his crossingto 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 Britishactors can seemingly muster. Deep down, he knows this is all hokum, butplays to its ludicrousness with great aplomb. Save a few unfortunate facialmugs to camera (more likely to elicit laughter than fear) McDiarmid isundoubtedly 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 thesub-standard dialogue, while Samuel L. Jackson continues his underwhelmingwork as Mace Windu. Mace gets a genuinely thrilling face-off with McDiarmid,however, so I guess Jackson can walk away happy. Elsewhere, Star Warsstalwart and cultural icon C3-PO (Anthony Daniels) is reduced to almost a cameoappearance. Still, he does get the last line of the prequels and first lineof the original trilogy.
As always, the visual effects are of a superb calibre. Those ILM boys reallyknow their stuff, and while there continues to be a distancing effect fromCGI (generally) there’s still no denying its ability to enthral an audiencethrough sheer scope.
However, Lucas would do well to consider that one indisputably exciting shotconsists of real actors, dressed in real Wookie costumes, running across areal beach. The accompanying shots of CGI ships and Clone Troopers palebeside this one moment of “old-fashioned” reality.
In a similar vein, the supposed villain of ROTS (until Lord Vader makes hisappearance) is cyborg alien General Grievous. Grievous is a fully CGIcreation that, therefore, lacks the impact ofEpisode I‘sDarth Maulstraightaway, and is actually conceived as a rather underwhelming baddie byway of a hacking cough and complete lack of Jedi-slaying ability – despitehaving four lightsabres to “multi-hand”…
On the plus side; John Williams’ music is another fine entry, outperformingeven 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 scoresare undoubtedly eclipsed by Episode III – primarily because it weaves inmore recognisable themes from the Original Trilogy (the moment Vader’sImperial March stirs will have fans shaking in their seats…)
Revenge Of The Sith is enjoyable throughout, although the excessive CGIquickly becomes quite tiresome. Sequences that employ visuals with anundercurrent of something approaching emotional weight work much better,though – consider the Yoda vs Sidius encounter in the Senate, or the Kenobivs Skywalker showdown on the volcanic planet Mustafar for proof.
It’s true that, while a large portion of Episode III remains frustratinglyoverstuffed yet under-nourishing for casual audiences, the film begins toachieve 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 StarDestroyer 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 twotrilogies being answered with (mostly) satisfactory results. Quite how DarthVader never seems to recognize C3-PO or R2-D2 will perhaps forever remain amystery.
Overall, as perhaps expected, Episode III is the best prequel and the fourthbest Star Wars movie ever made (mainly due to Return Of The Jedi’s finale).Technically, ROTS is mostly unrivalled, but the lack of storytelling finesseand genuinely appealing characters means Episode III will forever be thoughtof as “the best of a bad bunch”.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.