Review #1,213: 'Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith' (2005)

For the third time in six years, I left the cinema back in 2005 after a screening of the eagerly anticipated conclusion to George Lucas' Star Wars prequel trilogy with a smile on my face, and satisfied with a decent addition to the franchise canon. Yet again, as time went by, I felt my opinion towards the film rapidly decline after subsequent viewings. I decided to re-visit the Star Wars series again in the hope of finding some unique charm to the prequels, be it nostalgia or just my general love for the universe I frequently visited as a child. Yet there is little fun to be had with Episodes I-III, and the films now seem more rigid, humourless and just plain boring as they ever did. Revenge of the Sith does offer some slight relief however, and ends the trilogy on a minor high thanks mainly to a darkness Lucas had promised previously but failed to deliver.

The plot is more convoluted than ever, jumping ahead three years from the events of Attack of the Clones and having to explain the events in between. The galaxy is now in a state of civil war, and Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) are on a mission to rescue the kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) from the wheezing Separatist leader General Grievous (voiced by Matthew Wood). With the Chancellor now safe to spread his mischief throughout the Republic while Jedi Masters Yoda (Frank Oz) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) remain powerless and clueless to his influence, Anakin reunites with his secret wife Padme (Natalie Portman), who reveals herself to be pregnant. Elsewhere in the galaxy, Obi-Wan heads out to confront Grievous, while Yoda travels to a distant planet to prepare for an invasion.

Much of the build-up of the previous two movies focused on Anakin becoming the iconic villain Darth Vader, and the events which drove him down such a dark path. With Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen tasked with handling such a complex character arc, combined with the consistently awful scripts, it's been an unconvincing journey to say the least. With so much time spent previously navigating through murky sub-plots and distracting diversions such as the development of a secret clone army, Anakin hasn't really been given the opportunity to do much other than mope around like a typical teenager and get a bit snarky with authority. Near enough the second half of the movie is primarily focused on Palpatine's influence over the brooding Jedi, so it feels a rushed sprint to fit everything in rather than the slow-build the character really needs. Naturally, there must also be an explanation as to why the Emperor is so disfigured and why Anakin has the need to wear a mask, and of course we must see Luke and Leia come into the world.

However, despite how flimsy Anakin's sudden turn to the Dark Side may be, there are some moments during his brief reign of terror that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Hats off to Lucas, as he does allow the youngster to carry out some truly heinous acts that help to understand how he became so feared by his enemies. The visuals are also quite splendid, bursting with colour and imagination, and once again Ewan McGregor tries his very best to make the script work while trying to keep up his Alec Guinness impersonation. Aside from this, Episode III is still plagued with all the problems that came before: tedious conversations, risible dialogue, awkward comedy, bad acting, and so on. Yet it scrapes a pass, as it does with most Star Wars fans, simply for not being completely terrible. It says a lot for a trilogy when a film of this quality is dubbed 'the good one'.


Directed by: George Lucas
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Frank Oz, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie