So with the utter disappointment of those two movies,
anticipation for Episode 3 was justifiably low. Sure, we’d see it, but it was
more based on obligation so that we could finally put this new trilogy to rest.
This third prequel, which would be named Revenge of the Sith, was going to
bring the entire saga full circle, and showcase the formation of the Empire and
the near-eradication of the Jedi, and the test of willpower between friends
Anakin and Obi-Wan.
But to everyone’s surprise, the movie was actually
well-received. Often praised for its dark tone and significant improvements in
storytelling, Revenge of the Sith to this day remains the best of the Star Wars
prequels… even if that’s not a high bar, and it only occasionally flirts with
greatness, for it still has several of the same problems as Menace and Clones.
In the midst of the war between the Republic and the
Separatists, the film opens with Jedi knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin
Skywalker (Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, respectively) leading a
mission to rescue the kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), and after
its successful completion, Anakin is plagued with premonitions that his now pregnant
wife Padme (Natalie Portman) may die in childbirth. In fear of this, he
continually finds himself subtly manipulated and seduced by the abilities of
the Dark Side. When it’s discovered that Palpatine is the Sith lord Darth
Sidious, a series of escalating events lead Anakin to become his new apprentice
Darth Vader, leading to the downfall of the Old Republic, and Obi-Wan will
eventually have to do battle with and kill his old apprentice and friend.
Despite there being every reason to expect that the movie
would fail, its good word of mouth and praise was a welcome turnaround from its
predecessors. It actually feels like George Lucas took criticism of his
previous films to heart, specifically in how neither of the two felt like true
Star Wars films. Granted, his writing still leaves a fair bit to be desired,
but for the first time in this trilogy, it actually felt like we were watching
a Star Wars film.
This immediately becomes evident in the opening dogfight sequence,
which carries reminiscent hints of the Death Star trench sequence from A New
Hope. First starting with a lengthy extended take, even though it’s all still
obvious that the sequence is CGI, more of an effort has been made than anything
in Attack of the Clones to make it resemble more the miniature effects of the
original films, and Lucas actually manages to shoot all of the movement with
swiftness and appropriately dizzying rotation. This is followed up by some fun
vehicle acrobatics, tension with Obi-Wan’s fighter being sabotaged by buzz droids,
followed by the ships crash landing in the hangar of an enemy flagship.
In these early stretches, Anakin and Obi-Wan’s friendship
feels much more genuine and vastly less acidic than their appearances in Attack
of the Clones, with the two making witty small talk with each other,
complementing the weaknesses and strengths of the other, and have a real
connection established by feeling rather than talking. It’s very important that
the movie does this as early as possible, making it all the more heartbreaking
when these two will ultimately have to clash with each other.
Throughout this rescue, Obi-Wan and Anakin have another bout
with Count Dooku, reprised by Christopher Lee, who Anakin bests in battle, and
is then manipulated by Palpatine to kill his old apprentice, in one of the more
gruesome deaths in Star Wars history. It’s on this flagship that they also meet
Separatist commander General Grievous (voiced by supervising sound editor
Matthew Wood), who acts as an object of foreshadowing Skywalker’s ultimate
fate, and has an intimidating and delightfully hammy presence, first in a
flashy and briefly thrilling escape from his crumbling warship, and then much
later on when Obi-Wan tracks him to the Utapau system, dueling against his four
lightsabers, and then hand to hand on Grievous’ personal landing platform. Plus
it helps that the effects work on him is always fantastically detailed and
fluid.
After that rescue, things do get a bit less entertaining and
slow, but never to the degree of outright boredom. The effects themselves do
look very good, with many of them still holding up today. As said before, more
effort has been made to mask the obviousness of the CGI and make it reminiscent
to the scale-model style filming that Star Wars has become famous for, with
Lucas integrating many of them seamlessly and going nuts with the imagination
of a child. Also, it’s nice to see that, despite every single image having “so
much going on”, it’s nice that Lucas keeps the focus directly on where it’s
necessary with the smaller details not distracting from the action too much.
That being said, are there still hiccups in the effects? Absolutely! For as
many great effects that there are, there are also a lot that haven’t aged well.
Plenty sequences appear quite cartoonish or unfinished, the overabundance of
blue screen becomes a bit disenchanting, and Lucas still drags portions of the
movie out to show off more of what he can do with the digital tools. Anytime
Obi-Wan rides the reptilian-esque Boga, it feels like the movie has turned into
How to Train Your Dragon in the blink of an eye. It’s toned down to be certain,
but still going overboard.
And once again, the film becomes a much stronger showcase of
audio than visuals. Ben Burtt of course provides the same incredible quality we
all expect when we think of Star Wars, but it’s the music by John Williams that
becomes the film’s most valuable asset, and is actually better than I remember
it. Being that this was the last Star Wars movie at the time, Williams had the
unenviable task of tying up every single loose end of both trilogies, working
more new material alongside his classic melodies, and providing a ton of foreshadowing for Episodes IV-VI.
That’s exactly what he did, capping off his legendary collection of symphonies
with a massive and rousing series of compositions, cementing Star Wars as the
greatest musical continuity of any film series in history.
Even the characters have made an improvement. Ewan McGregor
turns in another impressive performance, showcasing more and more of his
effortless Alec Guiness personality, embodying more of the endearing wit,
commanding assertiveness, and graceful wisdom. Even Hayden Christensen has
managed to improve over his far too whiny and egotistical earlier
interpretation. He still comes across as a bit wooden, but does feel more like
the noble friend Obi-Wan always spoke highly of, and that’s largely thanks to
an improved and fast sense of humor. Even so, his romance with Natalie
Portman’s Padme, now reduced to a passive observer, never directly serving the
plot until the very end and exists solely to be a plot device, is still boring
and lifeless, with the realizations and argument between the two on Mustafar
being one of the more laughably corny moments of the saga.
However, it’s an unapologetically theatrical and vile Ian
McDiarmid as Palpatine who steals the movie anytime he’s on screen. For
everything that these prequels got wrong, I always felt like the Emperor was one of the few things the films always got right. Palpatine has never been
the type to get his own hands dirty so easily. He’s always been at his best
when he’s worked like a puppeteer, manipulating the individuals around him at
will to further his own agenda, and only took direct action as a last resort,
which was when you wanted to run for your life. The prequels did well in
building up a tender, almost surrogate father-figure status for Anakin, with it
even being implied that he played a key role in his conception in the standout
Opera house scene, which is about as perfect a genuinely well-written, well
paced, mysterious, and mythological sequence that the prequels had ever seen.
This is how you add energy to talking heads scenes.
In fact, this film felt much more wholly realized in its
deconstruction of the oft-hypocritical Jedi code, and the blurred lines between
Sith and Jedi than anything in Attack of the Clones, particularly when Jedi
master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson, so poorly used in these movies) attempts
to strike Palpatine down with the same hatred and uncontrolled emotion that his
own code preaches are the values of the Sith. McDiarmid clearly loves those
stretches of the film where he becomes much more alike the sinister and vile
incarnation of Return of the Jedi, and once the film reaches its midway point,
with the man becoming disfigured at his own hands, the film takes on some truly
grim and unnerving life, especially with the lengthy and brutal Order 66, in
which the hundreds of thousands of Clone troopers turn on their Jedi Generals,
as well as storming the Jedi temple, following afterwards, and might even be
the emotional peak of the film.
Lucas’ writing benefits largely thanks to the overall darker
presentation. With the fitting grunginess of the Star Wars universe restored,
Revenge of the Sith has a difficult task of wrapping up all of the loose ends
of the prequels, and also implement natural foreshadowing of events to come in
the original trilogy. Granted, such a thing is hit or miss, with moments like
Bail Organa and the Tantive IV playing crucial parts in the story, while those
the likes of Chewbacca feel like blatant fan-service. Dialogue is also quite
flimsy and ridiculous. The cast at least do a respectable job of making it
easier to swallow, but no matter how many areas Lucas has improved in, he’s
still terrible with beating the viewer over the head with exposition and forced
subtext, which hardly qualifies as subtext once it’s been spelled out to the
audience in big, bold, red letters. In fact, some of it is so poorly worded
that in one scene, McGregor actually has to place his hand over his mouth to
hide the smirk on his face.
The action can be just as hit or miss, with the aforementioned
opening 25 minutes, Obi-Wan’s face off with General Grievous, and the
devastating Order 66 being highlights, but then others are poorly filmed, such
as the duel between Sidious and Windu in the cramped Chancellor’s office, which
has to make extensive and jarring use of cuts to mask Ian McDiarmid’s inefficiency
with a lightsaber.
In fact, both the writing and the action suffer from
inconsistencies in the final thirty minutes in particular. The whole film has
been building to the epic confrontation between Obi-Wan and Anakin, and despite
the film making a great effort at building an emotional core into it, the scene
is undone by the fact that this duel stretches out so long, and spreads to so
many fantastical and flashy locations that it becomes cartoonish, and slowly
wears its welcome out. Despite the aftermath delivering a deeply heartbreaking
gut punch, there’s no reason that this duel couldn’t have lasted five minutes,
been self-contained in one or two locations, and had just as much, if not more
impact. On top of that, I can’t give stunt coordinator Nick Gillard enough
credit for the obviously painstaking lengths he went to choreograph this
sequence, but the fight begins to feel so flawlessly staged that it begins to
feel more like a dance. Lightsaber battles were always about the story and the
emotions that were unfolding, and not about the choreography. It’s the reason
why the duel between these same people in A New Hope is so much stronger, and
carries far more catharsis.
At the same time, an epic clash between Yoda and the Emperor
unfolds, with the two dueling in the Galactic Senate building, first with
lightsabers, and then using the powers of the force. The lightsaber portion
still bothers me as much as it did during Yoda and Count Dooku’s showdown, as
both Yoda and the Emperor are two characters that absolutely should not be
using lightsabers. That being said, they do give up that style of fighting
midway through, where Palpatine and Yoda’s Force abilities are put to the test,
and this test of might and willpower becomes a much more fascinating battle.
The story then proceeds with Luke and Leia being born, Padme
losing the will to live after giving birth (Yeah, no will despite having just
given birth, real nice), and Anakin being reborn as Darth Vader. Or at least we
finally get to hear James Earl Jones, as this Darth Vader only has the most
superficial connections to the original character, whose credibility completely
vanishes once it utters the now infamous “NOOOOOO!” Blah, blah, blah, Luke and
Leia are adopted by separate families, and the film ends leaving an entire trilogy of potential squandered in its wake.
So that was Revenge of the Sith, and I’m honestly conflicted
on it. I can certainly appreciate and understand why many viewers loved it at
the time. I myself used to love this movie back in the day, but despite those
fond memories I once had, it’s unfortunate that the film has not held up as
strongly with age. To call it the best of the prequels isn’t really saying
much, for while it is the darkest and the most entertaining of the three, it’s
still littered with and burdened by all of the same issues. Its effects
artistry has improved over Attack of the Clones, but just as many effects have
slowly started showing their decay. Despite the story and characterization having
more built up emotion, its wooden dialogue makes for some unintentionally
hilarious moments that sour its tone. This was clearly the story that Lucas
wanted to tell from the very beginning, but with how much potential the story
had, and with the amount of closure it necessitated, for it to settle on above
average is intensely disappointing.
Well, whether you liked it or you didn’t, at least these
movies were finally over and done with. There will likely be more films as highly anticipated in the future, but I highly doubt any of them will
match the crushing mediocrity these movies subjected us to. Even Indiana Jones
and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with all of its mixed word, wasn’t half
as underwhelming. There’s never been anything like them since, and there’ll
likely never be anything like them again, essentially becoming the definitive example of what happens when a man gets far too much creative control.
Now that all that bitterness and negativity’s been thrown
out the window, join me next week when we’ll get to talk about the movies that
everyone actually likes…
*** / *****
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