The Hedonism Arbiters
5/22/2005 01:40:00 AM | posted by Lover Boy | #  
Revenge of the Sith
Well, The day that Star Wars fans have been waiting for has finally arrived. May 19th, 2005 is the day that sparked the release of the final Star Wars movie. Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith swept across theaters nationwide and opened at midnight around the country. The lines were long but for Star Wars fans, the wait was well worth it.

Many fans have felt let down by the prequel trilogy. Lucas had done some things to Star Wars that made even yours truly cringe at the very sight and sound. The first two installments were not the greatest, but still held up on their own. The comic relief from Episodes I and II was, how would you say, horrible. Episode I had Jar Jar Binks, who in my opinion, is the worst character ever thought up in movie history. My word, how did Lucas possibly think up Jar Jar Binks, seriously. I guess it is sweet irony for the Star Wars Universe that Jar Jar was the one who gave the Chancellor emergency executive powers that ultimately was the downfall of the Republic. Secondly, in Episode II, Jar Jar was left out for most of the movie, however, Lucas decided to replace Jar Jar's stupidity with C-3PO. I had so much trouble sitting and listening to Threepio's stupid puns and one liners in Episode II. The comic relief had always been R2-D2, and that is the way it should have stayed. In Episode III, Artoo was the comic relief, and I enjoyed it very much, Episode III was the prequel that felt the most like the original trilogy.

The movie was great, and it had every aspect that made the original trilogy great. It had the heroes and the villains. The Jedi vs. The Sith. That is the way it has always been. Episode I had the great lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan and Darth Maul, however, there was nothing that was built upon that. Episode II brought Count Dooku, who in my opinion was a horrible choice for a villain. I feel he was too old to play a Dark Lord of the Sith. With Episode III, we have Count Dooku, Darth Sidious or The Emperor, and the new Darth Vader. I was happy to see Count Dooku killed in the beginning of the movie, mostly because I did not ever like the character. And seeing Palpatine just transform himself into the essence of evil made my skin crawl. How he turned Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader was just incredible. Other reviews have bashed how Anakin is turned, but I totally bought it. His love, his want for power so he wouldn't lose Padme like he lost his mother, it was totally believable. I mean, Darth Vader always had good in him, but he was twisted by the Dark side of the force and that is what happened. He craved more power and by turning to the Dark side, he achieved it. He did not turn to the Dark side over just the totally desire to have absolute power, but to make sure that Padme lived. I bought his change even if others did not.



Ewan McGregor did a fantastic job as usual in this movie. This movie though let him shine as Obi-Wan. He had to deal with the falling of his friend, his brother, his former padawan, Anakin Skywalker. McGregor has done a superb job throughout the entire trilogy of showing the wisdom of Obi-Wan Kenobi. McGregor has always looked like a younger Sir Alec Guinness and I have always loved that. I saw so many similarities to those two especially in Episode III. You saw Obi-Wan's struggle with Anakin and the ultimate acceptance that he lost Anakin to the Dark side. You understand why Obi-Wan's opinion is that Anakin was killed by Darth Vader. You begin to understand this by the relationship those two had. When Anakin turned, Obi-Wan felt betrayed and he felt that he had lost his brother, as if his friend and former student was actually killed. McGregor shows us all of this with his acting, and I sat there just fully enjoying every minute that he was on screen.

I would have also say that Hayden Christiansen's acting improved in this movie. I actually enjoyed when he was on screen. With Episode II, all you had was Anakin whining all the time, and I just was so annoyed with that. In this movie, I just could not believe I was watching the same character. Maybe that was Lucas' plan all along, to have a character that you saw grow up and then turn to evil. It would make total sense to me. Again, some of the dialogue between Anakin and Padme was not the greatest, but it was nothing I could not handle. The dialogue between them was better though, not Anakin telling her how much he loves her and what not, but going deeper into his own goal of being able to keep her alive regardless of the costs. In this movie, we finally learn how Anakin came about, and I very pleased. Palpatine tells Anakin a story of a former Sith Lord that learned to manipulate the medichlorians to create life, and this Sith Lord passed it down to his apprentice. Palpatine does not come right out and say it, but you know the apprentice was him, and Anakin figures that out later. So Palpatine was the one who was the cause of Anakin's birth, and with that, he has been planning Anakin's change to the Dark side from the beginning. He was controlling everything. Palpatine created Anakin to be his ultimate apprentice, to have a Sith Lord that was stronger than any Jedi, that was stronger than anyone ever had been. He taunts Yoda even with this. He tells Yoda that Anakin, or Darth Vader as he is referred to now, is going to be more powerful than Himself and Yoda. I just loved how Christiansen did the job of showing Anakin's turmoil and fall into the Dark side. Critics have said that the fall was too fast, and wasn't believable, but I think differently. As I said before, it was all because he wanted the power to stop people from dying, and he had wanted that from even Episode II, when his mother died. So I give Lucas credit for that, being able to tie everything together. After his turn to the Dark side, Anakin has to battle Obi-Wan on the lava planet of Mustafar. Now this is a lightsaber duel that everyone has been hearing about for the last 28 years. It was what I expected it to be, very tense and very emotional. If people did not like this duel, it was because they were expecting a duel like from Episode I. See, each lightsaber duel should be taken differently. Each one is different so you cannot expect that one should be like another. So with this duel, having Obi-Wan and Darth Vader fight around lava, and having Obi-Wan cut off the legs and the good arm of Anakin, it was just amazing. I personally enjoyed the fight, as I enjoyed the whole movie.


This brings me to Darth Vader himself, after he is charred by Obi-Wan, and put into the Black Suit that everyone has come to know and fear. You understand why Vader is as tall as he is, and why he needs the suit. After he is in the suit and fully functional, he wonders about Padme and the Emperor tells him that he killed her. Now I had problems with Vader's reaction at first. His Frankenstein walk after he gets out of his restraints was totally believable because he was walking on artificial legs for the first time. He does scream "No" though which kind of got to me, but after thinking about it, he still loved her, and people will say that Vader is not like that, he would not scream "No" but if you think about it, he is still a person inside that suit. The critics will look at the original trilogy for Vader references, but what they do not realize is that Episode IV takes place 18 years after Episode III. That is 18 years after Padme's death and Darth Vader has just had that time to just let his anger build and build. With Padme gone, all there is for him is the Dark side and the Emperor. All he has is his hate and anger driving him in the original trilogy. So the "No" may not seem like Vader but it is if you look at it in a humanistic way. In that aspect I am pleased with it.


The Emperor was one of the best characters in this movie. Ian McDiarmid was stellar as Palpatine. I sat at the edge of my seat listening to him tell of the power of the Dark side. This was his movie in a lot of ways, as he forms the Empire, and has the Jedi eradicated. In this movie too, we finally see how powerful he actually is. I do wonder if he could have killed Mace Windu on his own but opted to have Anakin help him to finally push Anakin over the edge. The questions, but I can tell you this, the Emperor is by far one of the best characters in this movie.


I move to General Grievous, who everyone has talked about. His ability to wield four lightsabers is just amazing on screen. We do see Obi-Wan's master abilities though, when he quickly disposes of two of Grievous' hands and then force pushes him into the rafters. Grievous may have died too quickly for some, but for me, it was just right. I say this because Obi-Wan is a Jedi Master and he shows why. He kills him without the use of his lightsaber. Grievous dies fast because he cannot match a Jedi Master, and in my feeling that is why he was supposed to die as quickly as he did. His coughing, I did not mind it at all, because the Clone Wars cartoons on Cartoon Network explain why he coughs. So Grievous was everything he should have been.


Yoda again did a good job of proving why he is the most powerful Jedi. Mace Windu was supposed to be powerful, but was killed by the Emperor and Vader. Yoda though again does his unique saber fighting in this one, and does fight off the Emperor very well. We do understand why Yoda does not have a lightsaber in the original trilogy and we see why Yoda goes to Degobah. After he is almost killed from his battle with the Emperor that ends in a draw, he feels he has failed and decides to go into exile. He awaits the coming of age of Luke, who Obi-Wan takes to Tatoonie and tells Yoda he will watch over the boy. It brings everything full circle and leads greatly into the original trilogy.
I guess I cannot find really any flaws in this movie. People will always criticize the CG and everything, but this is Lucas' life work, the very thing he has spent more time than anything making it perfect. I have loved Star Wars my entire life and I will always love Star Wars, regardless of the little flaws. Greedo shooting first, Jar Jar Binks, and C-3PO's puns were basically my only really big problems with the whole saga. Oh yeah, and who cannot forget those Ewoks, which I mean, they were not a horrible idea, but not something that would totally bring down the Emperor's best troops. I guess I wish that the Stormtroopers would have been a little more militaristic in the original trilogy, but I have to look at the fact that they were made 20 some years ago. Technology has advanced and so the prequels looked more flashy. I also see the original trilogy as the dark ages of that galaxy far far away. With that, my review of Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith comes to an end. I told you a lot of what happens, and how I feel about what happens. Hope that you are able to form your own opinions on the movie, and hopefully you will enjoy it as I have. That is my take, Hope you enjoyed it.

2 Comments:

Looks like someone linked to offsite pics.... and well... looks like they aren't there anymore. Darn you internet!!!

posted by Petey Boy on 5/31/2005 7:18 PM 

I also would like to say that I loved Episode III so much better than the first 2... as it seems most people do. Also, I don't mind Jar Jar Binks... I think he was the least of the problems from Episode I. Also, that's it.

posted by Petey Boy on 5/31/2005 7:20 PM 

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