Review: Star Wars Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith

So it's the end of the beginning as we round out the prequel trilogy with Revenge Of The Sith, in any other series this would be the one where we finally see Lucas get the hang of his craft and hones it for the next instalments, however we've seen Lucas do great things with the original series so why Episodes 1 and 2 sucked I'll never know. Regardless Revenge Of The Sith is best of them and proves that, like Empire before, the darkest sequel is the best.

Set three years after Attack of The Clones, the Clone Wars are in full swing with the Senate looking for a swift end, after saving Chancellor Palpatine and killing Count Dooku, Anakin and Obi-Wan face stressing times when an ever more rash and angry Anakin demands more than the Jedi Council are willing to offer. While Obi-Wan searches for Separatist leader General Grievous, Anakin struggles alone against his own seduction by the dark side, spurred on by the devilish pushings from Palpatine and his own fear of losing his wife Padme and unborn child, Anakin soon starts falling for the dark side of the force.

You want to know the most important aspect of that plot synopsis. It's simple, it's a straight forward story about the fall of the Jedi and the rise of the sith, all the pieces (regardless as to whether we wanted them or not) have been put into place and this film lights the fuse, letting the all thing blow up in the Jedi's faces given a very streamlined and actually quite personal storyline. It's easy to follow and holds a lot of weight regarding those involved.

The acting was a lot better this time as well, the only one I'd say doesn't do well is Natalie Portman but since Padme is pregnant and can't do much I'll let this slide for now, although that one awful line, 'Hold me Ani' doesn't help matters. In the supporting cast Samuel L. Jackson brings his typical Jackson-ness to Mace, not blowing up like a mushroom cloud but showing a true warrior. Yoda's militant skills and fighting capabilities are all very impressive and his battle with Sidious in the Senate is one of the best parts of the film, plus the showing of how he came to be on Dagobah make sense is regard to the Jedi Master and what the his failure meant to him and the Jedi order.

On the villains side we had two main bad guys, General Grievous, an android type creature with skilled knowledge of how to handle a lightsabre (four of them to be precise) was cool and all but really with Maul, Jango and now Grievous I can't help but think it would've been better with just one, three episode villain throughout. Then there was Palpatine/Sidious who finally gets something to do in this series worth mentioning. His sly control of Anakin and how he's able to brings the young man over to the dark side is very impressive and the subtlety in his performance show a very cunning and sinister villain. Then he gets force lightninged in the face and that subtle dies with the Senate.

This film belongs to Anakin and Obi-Wan since it's about their friendship and how their relationship is destroyed by Anakin's desires and fears, fears Obi-Wan helped fan despite his intentions. McGregor takes on Obi-Wan for the third time and is the closest to Alec Guinness' original performance he's ever gotten, here Obi-Wan has had time to be a master and a teacher, he and Anakin have a better relationship, a more brotherly and friendly one but Obi-Wan's loyalty is to the Jedi council and he cannot change his friend's views regardless of how much he tries. He's a much more mature character, playful when he needs to be but also sombre and thoughtful when called for.

As Anakin Hayden Christensen almost makes up for Attack of The Clones... almost. His teenage dream romance with Padme is gone and is replaced by a frustrated married couple which both he and Portman seem to fit into better since they have more meat to chew. Anakin is frustrated since he's living a lie, told every day that his secret love for Padme is forbidden and that he can never let his emotions get the better of him. His fall to the dark side makes sense, because of the loss of his mother in Episode 2 Anakin has a fear of death, of losing the ones he loves and it's that fear which leads to anger which leads to hate which leads to suffering and Palpatine exploits that suffering to bring Anakin to his side, not by force but by persuasion and making it Anakin's own choice. It's a much better performance since it allows Christensen to really get into the emotions of his character, is he great? No, he still feels wooden at times and laughable at others but he's got more to him and he does appear as a far darker character.

It's also Lucas who does a far better job than the last two times, for one thing the fuckin pacing issues have been sorted out, probably due to a much simpler storyline but whatever the reason there wasn't any rushed or slow-moving scenes nor was there any jumping around between an interesting story and a forced romance, it was the right mix of fast action and slowed dialogue moments. To take an example, the film opens with a Space battle and rescue mission, this takes about 20 minutes but it sets things up well, given us excitement and even some small humour with Anakin and Obi-Wan's banter while also shown the dark-path Anakin will be taking, this is then followed by some smaller scenes which still follow that overarching story about Anakin and take us to one of the best parts of the whole saga, when Palpatine tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis and his downfall, it's the closest the prequel come to be Shakespearean (and trust me, with Lucas' dialogue that's normally pretty fuckin far) and shows a nice, subtle foreshadowing of what is to come.

Because this is the end the battles actually carry a lot of weight to them, the fight between Obi-Wan and Grievous is a fun little side thing but it's preparing us for what's the come, the Order 66 montage and the decimation of the Jedi Order is some of the best work in the Saga for just how dark and hopeless it is throughout, leading into a final one-two battle between Toda and Sidious in the Senate (the destruction of the place signalling the destruction of liberty now with the Galactic Empire in full effect) and between Anakin and Obi-Wan, a visually impressive battle through a literal hell of the volcanic planet they battle on.

I can't speak for the original trilogy just yet but I think Revenge Of The Sith is up there as one of the saga's best film, it's darker, more sinister tones fit perfectly in with it's simple but effective storyline, the action is engaging, the themes subtle and interesting and it's the acting as great as it'll ever be for these prequels. If Episode 1 and 2 were more like this then people would be complaining about them less.

8/10