Selected Review of the Day: STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005)

We finally come to the final Star Wars movie in the prequel trilogy, Revenge of the Sith. This film by a lot of Star Wars fans, including myself, consider this to probably be the one prequel that is most tolerable, and maybe even close to being actually pretty good. In this installment we see Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen),  as a still dull but nonetheless more experienced Jedi Knight. But when he gets nightmares of his now wife, Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), dying during the birth of the galaxy's future heroes, the Jedi turns to great desperation as Chancellor Palpatine, revealed to be the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, and would later on be The Emperor (Ian McDiarmid), tempts him to join the Dark Side. Anakin does so, rather sporadically in fact, and becomes the Sith Lord we know as Darth Vader, in order to gain great power to save his beloved. It's up to Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to face with his old apprentice in a battle that will shape Anakin's dark destiny. Is it pretty good, no, but its satisfactory, as it has its dumb moments but has more good moments than The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones combined. 



Hayden Christensen is still kind of bad in this unfortunately. As much as I feel bad giving this guy a hard time, it is kind of an issue seeing how he is supposed to be the main focus. The character's transition into The Dark Side is also poorly handled. As a Jedi he does not come up as quite interesting or heroic, so the tragedy is absent when he does become evil, meaning no emotional reaction from me as an audience member. That is transition is very quick, I mean he turns to the other side in a heart beat. Despite having two of the prior films as sore wounds in her acting career, I have to say this is the best Natalie Portman has done in this series. Not the best work she has ever done, but improved. Her scenes with Hayden are still pretty tough to watch, as the two continue to have no chemistry, but they are not as bad as Attack of the Clones. When watching this movie, it made me realize that she actually does a decent job when she is NOT with Christensen. She does manage to sell scenes on her own or with other cast members. Ewan McGregor is one the reasons this movie seems watchable. As the movies progress, his performance as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi improves and he more and more becomes the character. There is a new character in the movie, a villain called General Grievous, and while he has a cool design and voice, there is not that much to him. He is not even put to that good use and is more of a character there to serve the convenience of the plot. Yoda has a prominent role in the film as well, and I finally get a sense of what this Jedi Master was like before he exiled himself to Dagobah. This is the most I ever cared of my favorite Star Wars character in any of the prequels. He even as an awesome lightsaber duel with Palpatine in the climax. Speaking of who, Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine is probably the most entertaining character in the entire movie. McDiarmid has such a ball with this performance, at times appearing threatening and at times being enjoyably over the top. He is deliciously and lovably evil. At least with the characters, there was little to some improvement. 



Remember when I said the visual effects in the past movies were not that impressive? Well even though it still CG and green screen overkill, they actually do look impressive and neat this time. They do not look out of place here like in the other movies. But it still brings up the question of why Trade Federation Droids were a threat in the first place. The action scenes look great, especially the opening. The opening was one long but fun 15 minute ride that actually felt like Star Wars. Also composer John Williams brings his A-game when writing the score. Some of his best Star Wars music is introduced and featured in this movie. 



The story of this film, and this can probably go for the other prequels, when put on paper sounds really good. There's a lot of potential and character growth that can be explored. Revenge of the Sith is probably the best written story of the prequels. The problem is though Hayden Christensen's performance as well as the development of Anakin is needed to drive this movie to it's emotional core. That is where the biggest problem is, Christensen is just not that good nor is Anakin written that well. The rest of the cast seems okay, like they understand the stakes their characters face in this film. This is the film is where we are suppose to see Anakin's tragic turn to the dark side and become the most feared villain in the galaxy. And a lot of it unfortunately just does not work, which is really disappointing. But on the other hand, this the only prequel film I can say I don't mind watching from time to time. This is because there is some good moments in the film, which makes it worth watching. Still not as good as the original trilogy, but not as bad as its predecessors. But don't worry, we will get to the good stuff next! 


GRADE: AP+