| Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith | | Cast : | Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen | | Director : | George Lucas | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox Home Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | May 19, 2005 | | DVD Released Date : | November 01, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | Atrocious | Content
 | One of my chief complaints with the Star Wars prequel trilogy is the way the relationship between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker was developed. As I watched the original trilogy over the years, I always enjoyed hearing old Obi-Wan tell Luke what a mighty Jedi his father Anakin was, and how he was such a good friend. Even after Anakin's identity as Darth Vader was revealed in the old movies, Obi-Wan still weaved tales of how wonderful a person he was before the Dark Side took its stranglehold on him. For some bizarre reason, these new films depict Anakin as nothing of the sort. In the first installment, these two characters barely interacted in the slightest, and in Attack of the Clones, they hated each other's guts. For a pair of characters who were supposed to be such good friends, these two had a very bitter and hollow relationship up until now. However, in this latest installment, it appears Mr. Lucas finally decided to touch on this aspect of the story, but unfortunately it is far too little, too late.
The first ten or twenty minutes of Revenge of the Sith are quite exciting. Anakin finally appears to be a formidable Jedi this time out, taking down numerous enemies, even the menacing Count Dooku. Not only that, but he actually appears to be concerned about the safety of his mentor Obi-Wan and makes the effort to save his life a number of times. This is very much unlike the previous chapter, in which despite much bragging Anakin did little more than get overwhelmed and clobbered in virtually every battle scene he was involved in. Not to mention his contempt for Obi-Wan, as he complained ceaselessly about his treatment at the hands of his teacher and blamed him for everything that went wrong in his life.
Shortly after the elaborate action sequence in the beginning of this film, it sadly nosedives down to a level not far from the incredibly disappointing previous films in this trilogy. The friendship between Anakin and Obi-Wan rapidly deteriorates into mere blurbs of dialogue where they do little more than simply talk about their relationship being so valuable and full of adventure, while we the audience see none of it. I can only assume this is because George Lucas suddenly realized he was at the end of this new trilogy, and decided to conveniently tack on some touchy-feely dialogue between these two at the last minute to put some value on their friendship to give the climax some weight. Well, I'm not buying it. The last time I checked, the purpose of film is to depict a story visually, not just talk about it. This problem was rampant in the other two films, and it once again rears its ugly head in this installment. Just having the characters talk about something is no substitute for putting your story on the screen like a proper filmmaker should. If George Lucas was half the artist he claimed to be, he would understand this.
As a result of the poorly established relationship, the climactic battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan at the end turns out to be a surprisingly boring and dull sequence. This was supposed to be a huge moment in the Star Wars timeline, where Anakin turns on his master and succumbs to the Dark Side, but since no value was put on Anakin and Obi-Wan's relationship, or even on Anakin by himself, the scene means next to nothing. I also couldn't stand the new concepts of the Force and the Dark Side. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I prefer the original concept of the Dark Side, as it utilized feelings of anger and hatred to fuel it. But now according to George Lucas in all his wisdom, love is also an element of this evil power. Not only are negative, destructive feelings the source of the Dark Side, but now the entire canon of emotions in general are condemned in this movie, and any natural feelings or responses are forbidden for a Jedi. Whatever happened to "stretching out with your feelings," like old Obi-Wan told Luke when he began his training? I hate to sound like I'm making a joke, but this horrid new concept of the two sides of the Force just seemed like George Lucas coming up with some weak justification for the frightfully wooden performances delivered by his various protagonists in these new films. Just the fact that Anakin's love and concern for his wife lead to his being wooed by Palpatine's promise of life-saving powers through the Dark Side sickened me. How is concern for a loved one's wellbeing a gateway to such evil? Wasn't it Vader's concern for his son's life by the end of the original Star Wars the trigger that convinced him to turn away from the Dark Side? Having the same such concern for his wife be the catalyst for his turning to evil just doesn't make any sense.
Another thing that just horrified me about this movie was that Anakin doesn't even go through any significant change in his personality after he (apparently) turns to the Dark Side. The whole point of this part of the story was supposed to be that the personas of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are so drastically different. Yet, once Anakin assumes his evil new identity, he is still the same scowling, power-craving jerk he has been since Episode II. I had no reason to root for this character, or even feel sorry for him. It really makes me wonder, then, what was Luke fighting for in the original trilogy? In the old films I would hear Luke talk about how there was still good in him and that he could be saved. Now that a set of films has been released in order to flesh out Anakin's Jedi career and his eventual failure, Anakin doesn't seem to be a very charismatic or redeemable person at all. For the most part, he's just a watered down, wimpy version of the villain he eventually becomes. If George Lucas wasn't interested in living up to the back story he crafted for us in the original films, then he had no business making these films.
Once Anakin swears his allegiance to the evil Emperor and agrees to serve him, you would think he'd start to show off his amazing destructive powers, but no, that is not the case. As per the Emperor's orders, he marches off to topple the Jedi temple with a complement of troops. Of course, as he does so, the troops do all the hard work, while Anakin's duties involve killing a group of Jedi children. For all his great power, he can't even bother to tangle with a full-fledged Jedi and can only slaughter a bunch of kids. After that, he's sent off to another planet to murder a room of unarmed diplomats. Oh, and let's not forget his strangulation of his pregnant wife. Once he finally does take on a real Jedi, his "friend" Obi-Wan Kenobi, he gets hacked to bits and burnt to a crisp. Now I know this violent finish was supposed to happen to Anakin, but when he hasn't proved to be a very worthy opponent at nearly any other point, it's a very unsatisfying climax.
To top it all off, after Anakin Skywalker is transformed into the masked villain Darth Vader, he contributes nothing to the Jedi extermination. We get a quick scene of him stepping off the operating table as the respirator-wearing despot, and then a very brief shot of him on the deck of a space ship with the Emperor, and that's all. There were no cryptic shots of him constructing his new red lightsaber, no impressive scenes of him marching into battle with a cadre of Stormtroopers as he helps the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi, nothing. After weeks of seeing Darth Vader's image prostituted all over television to sell fast food and candy in order to commemorate this film's release, and after years of unnecessary foreshadowing throughout the prequel trilogy hinting towards Anakin's seduction to the Dark Side, this is the best Mr. Lucas can do for us. These are pretty pathetic origins for one of the most iconic villains in film history.
The rest of the film's conclusion was just as truncated and unfulfilling. It all devolved into a rushed montage of shots that only weakly tie this set of films to the originals. For the installment of this ghastly trilogy that was touted as being the one to tie everything together so neatly, it sure seemed to be in a hurry to run the end credits. Anakin's wife has her children before passing away, the twins are delivered to their respective homes, and that's it. No importance is put on the infants Luke and Leia and their significance in combating the Empire years later. This is extremely perplexing, since that theme was so important in the original trilogy. Well, I guess I shouldn't complain about this movie ending so abruptly. I'm just glad this prequel nonsense is over and done with. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | have a very good feeling about this! | Content
| It's in all likelyhood that we're going to get an amazing dvd come our way in Nov, and that extremely exciting. but I think what a lot of fans are really interested in , is the question of what george might put back in the film. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | W?ORSTT | Content
| Worst Strar Wars ever! The story shines as always.... but the script, acting, direction and lack of heart kill the cinematicly dull episode 3! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | Th Best out of The Prequels | Content
| When I saw this in theaters I knew what would happen. I would love this movie at the end of it all. The first two films in this trilogy were sub-par kid fun. This one is not for kids. This film has some very dark and violent scenes. The acting is alot better in this film than in the last two film, especially Hayden Christensen who performance was alright in the second but in this one he consumes the part and becomes Darth Vader. It is refreshing to see the dark lord again and hearing James Earl Jones voice is still good after all these years. This also has the best fights in it. Kind of sad ending. Will by when comes out. Highly Recommended. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | Closes the loose ends nicely | Content
| If you like star wars movies at all, you have to see this one. It does an excellent job of bridging from 1 and 2 to 4/5/6. All the loose ends I could think of are closed nicely, and you walk away with a nice feeling of closure for how the whole story holds together over all 6 episodes.
If you haven't seen the others, I'd start at star wars and empire strikes back though, instead of this. They were better movies. This one has several drawbacks as a stand alone movie, namely moderate acting and poor dialog in many cases. Also for kids its a bit dark.
But if you've already done the other 5, this is a must see, and an enjoyable one. |
|
|
|
|
