Thoughts on: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
May 19th, 2005 at 4:40 pm (3 - Enjoyed it)
I just returned from a matinee showing of the last Star Wars movie, Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and I have some thoughts I would like to share. I may write a more detailed review later:
• George Lucas can be a decent director (he showed he could back in American Graffiti (1973)) but all 3 recent Star Wars movies have suffered from bad directing, this one as much as if not worse than the last two.
• The dialogue still sucks… in a bad way.
• The timing of the movie felt at times to be right on and at other times to be off. Curiously this was happening within scenes. For example the opening space fight had good rhythm and moved right along, however the scenes that take place right afterward felt off beat and lacking in motion.
• That opening fight looked awesome. I want to see that again.
• There is some very poor acting, which is made worse by some very good acting:
• Ewan McGregor and specially Ian McDiarmid did a great job which unfortunately made Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman look all that much worse. I KNOW Natalie Portman can be a very good actress but she seems to require a good director which is absent in these movies. Hayden Christensen does better in Episode III than in II which is to say he does badly but does not make you want to wretch in your seat…. as much.
• Lucas thankfully showed some restraint in using characters (the droids) purely for comedic relief. There are still some hokey and unnecessary scenes but they are shorter and seem to belong more than the ones from episodes I and II.
• I prefer puppet Yoda to digital Yoda. Puppet Yoda looks more real.
• One wonders if George Lucas has ever had a good relationship with a woman because the romantic scenes he writes and directs are gut-wrenching bad. Portman and Christensen show all the screen chemistry of water and oil.
• I was thrilled to hear Vader’s first breath.
• I enjoyed myself.
*SPOILERS BELOW*
The following points contain potential spoilers for people who have not seen the movie. You have been warned:
• Franken-Vader is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! Bad George! BAD George!!
• Vader screaming “Noooo!!!!” after he wakes was one of the low-points in the flick… this is particularly bad since that should have been a great moment.
• I was impressed by the look of the burned up Anakin being prepped for his life support system.
• Anakin giving over to the dark side was about as believable as an elephant doing ballet. One moment he is about to turn Palpatine over and the next he is swearing loyalty. I know the reasons why but either the script, the acting, the directing or all combined to make it utterly non-believable.
• The art design was very well done. I am still bothered by the ‘past’ being more technologically advanced than the Luke/Leia era but that aside the worlds looked great and the gradual transition in look to the Episode IV, V & VI was quite enjoyable. I was specially pleased to see the Correlian Blockade Runner
• All the CG clones walking around in their obvious we haven’t yet gotten synthespians quite right but are using them anyway’ bugged me. Specially in scenes when there was a single clone on screen and the job could have been accomplished by an actor much easier and would have looked better.
• I am glad Jar Jar does not open his mouth.
Comedyfish said,
May 22, 2005 at 2:13 pm
Greetings from london
I have just seen it and I have to agree with excatly what the guy above said, all the things were excatly what i was thinking. I loved the movie but frankenstein vader walking out of the operating bed and then shouting Noooooo was a head slappingly bad moment. I just don’t get what Lucas was thinking.
Also when Palpentine was getting zapped was a bit cringy and then as the guy above said, Anakin all of a sudden goes ‘Oh OK I’ll turn to the darkside then’ did not believe that really. Overall I might even rate this above Jedi, simply cos it tied in beautifully with IV. So for me not as good as Empire Strikes back and New Hope but so much better than I and II.
DevineDarkAngel said,
May 23, 2005 at 6:35 pm
I agree with everything Leopoldo just said.
Like the frankenstein vader was soo wrong… soo soo wrong. But when vader then said know after (spoiler) he found out that padme died, it was soo… dumb and not well scripted. Because when you hear vader scream No its soo very stuped.
On a lighter note ide like to say that the action fighting scenes were amazing, quite breath taking. As of course were the visual art was spectacular, but as we all know (spolier…I think) the new republic falls under the siths control and becomes the new sith planet, yay…
Another thing ide like to point out was the endless monologging… good lord people just kill each other already. (Spoiler) Near the end of the movie where anakin and obi-wan (why its spaced I dunno) are fighting and hes telling anakin that hes the chosen one, yada yada yada and that he is trying to turn him over to the good side, wrong mr.obi-wan.
I also believe that the changing from dark side to light for anakin was alitte, boring. I would have thought they showed him going insane or something or even destroying the temple (the temple in its intirety) since I have played the video game and was not impressed… not at all.
On another…another note I would like to say the jedi temple scene where he kills all the young kids was extremely mean and I felt like crying for the little kiddies because they couldnt defend themselves. I mean the guy actually went to the training area and killed these little kids, what a basterd!
So as this does conclude, bad monologes, stuped ranting, and loss of a storyline leaves this movie good but also bad…
Im giving this movie a 3 out of 5.
julie said,
May 25, 2005 at 4:14 pm
Really great critiques…I agree with pretty much all of what’s been said. As an aside, I am continually astounded at the level of utter badness of Lucas’ directing choices. In so many of the scenes he butchered, I can think of about a half-dozen ways he could have done it so, sooo much better. Unfortunately, it is often in very key scenes that his worst blunders occur.
One thing I did want to point out, (maybe to emphasize some of these terrible directing choices, maybe to show that the story itself could have been workable), is that the elements were there to make (most) of these disparate pieces work.
1) Pallpatine was supposedly priming Anakin for this role since he was a child. They could have shown him being manipulated and “softened” for the moment of his turning, with even just a little bit more subtlety and skill. To do this right, it would mean P. planting seeds in Anakin’s mind throughout the last 2 films that eventually paid off in the turning scene. Instead they have Pallpatine using ego/vanity appeals to Anakin in Episode II, then go a totally different direction in Episode III with the idea that he could save his wife’s life if he were just willing to “bend the rules” a little (a much better choice, in terms of believability). Neither idea delivered because they weren’t consistent, and were handled badly and superficially to boot.
2) A friend of mine mentioned in passing that even a good director (not even a great one) could have gotten to the audience with that scene of all the Jedi being killed off. He just didn’t give us sufficient reason to care
3) The Jedi supposedly are these great spiritual warriors who trained together since they were children, yet there is absolutely no heart whatsoever between these characters (see #3)
4) As someone said above, Anakin should have been shown to be much more mentally unstable, with mounting confusion, if they were going to make the idea of “quick turn” remotely believable. Pallpatine setting him up in a more long-term way could have worked. Like I said above, the idea that the jedi way was “narrow minded” and “dogmatic” could have worked as a seed of doubt in Anakin’s mind. It was just all introduced so late, and with so little visible emotional/intellectual conflict on Anakin’s part, it just couldn’t carry it.
5) They needed to explain why he was able to just walk out and become a baby killer so fast. I think this actually could have been done, and done well, but not without some context. The idea that people under the influence of dark forces “cease to be steering the boat” once they hand over control is hardly new. It could have been done this way, showing how when he gave himself over, the old Anakin “died” (hell, it ties in with Episodes IV-VI!). It just wasn’t done, which is unfortunate because it just adds to the impression that this character has no depth whatsoever.
6) They needed to make Anakin more likeable to really get the full impact of his turning. While I liked the character way better in Episode III, he’s still a petty, pouting little jerk, and not a believable character as either a) someone who has (presumably) done intensive spiritual practices over most of his life, b) someone who is ‘special’ as in the chosen one, etc., or c) someone who has suffered in very real ways, i.e., losing his mother, slavery as a child, ascetic practices, etc.
Like Leopoldo, I have to wonder if Lucas is completely emotionally retarded. Not to hearken back to previous films too much, but all three of these films indicate to me that he hasn’t a clue how people with any depth actually react to emotional crisis and/or trauma: a) the “noooo” scream literally almost made me laugh, b) the love scenes were awful, c) his idea of a child with psychic powers that lives with a lot of fear and emotional baggage yells “whoopee” and blows up space stations on accident, d) Padme’s “there, there” reaction to Anakin’s atrocity against the sand people, e) the total lack of visible conflict in Anakin either before, during or after he’s decided to walk the dark path
Other terrible, terrible things (from Episode III): a) the “muhhahaha” skull head robot that talked like a badly dubbed hong kong kung fu movie character, b) digital yoda – I agree, the puppet has way more presence, c) really stiff, lame dialogue that is unfortunately becoming a lucas trademark
Great CGI – can’t he just hire a real writer and directors that “get it?”
:)
me said,
June 3, 2005 at 9:42 am
i haven’t seen the movie, but my sister and her boyfriend said it was excellent!!! i guess they didn’t wan’t to spoil it for me buy telling me the down parts. i do agree with all of you above about the stiff lines (anakin & padme)
in episode 2.
Lance said,
June 7, 2005 at 12:01 am
Hats off to Mr. McGreggor and Mr. McDirmid, though there are problems that I don’t believe any of you adressed in your comments.
1) Padme *SPOILERS* dies at childbirth, yet Leia said quite clearly that she remembered her REAL mother in Return of the Jedi. “She died when I was very young.” Unless young means a few seconds old, that’s a large plothole.
2) Fixing the continuity flaw with C-3P0’s memory was done horribly, it seemed like a slapdash job that Lucas wrote into the script when he realized that he had to explain it.
3) How the hell did Obi-Wan, not to mention Beru and Lars, all turn into craggy old people in the 19 years between trilogies? Luke and Leia are 19, but Obi-Wan has clearly aged at least 30 years, maybe 40.
4) Watching the original trilogy, I see that Lucas has brought us right up to A New Hope by the end of this movie. In fact, for someone who is watching the films chronologically for the first time, there is no way to tell that twenty years have passed until we meet Luke. The opening scroll, I hate to say, ought to be redone just to incorporate a bit more of an explanation as to what has truly happened in the past 20 years.
5) Now Palpatine is an interesting character, however corny that “Oh, the elctricity made me all old and wrinkly” thing was. I just assumed that came from living for the better side of 30 years in evil. Y’know, a whole dark-side downfall, living to a decrepit, withered old age, clinging to life by using sith immortality secrets.
6) Grievous was soooooooo uncool. Tartakovsky should’ve kicked Lucas’ ass and directed the thing himself.
7) I read that Palpatine was supposed to be hinting at the fact that he was Anakin’s “father,” that because he could create life, and that Anakin had no biological father, Palpatine may have willed the force into the form of a human, who was born on the distant planet of Tatooine to a virgin slave. I didn’t get that impression. Anybody else?
julie said,
June 7, 2005 at 11:45 am
Just thought this might amuse people…
http://ter.air0day.com/?script=revengeofthesith
Tina said,
June 8, 2005 at 6:02 pm
I thought the movie was great it has been the best so far!! the love between patamae and Anakon was so sweet all he wanted to do was save her but end up killing her so it was a big tradegedy.. and people stop paying attention to the little stuff like wht leah said her mom died at a young age who cares it’s just entertainment… I give it 4 stars
thepopoman said,
June 9, 2005 at 1:45 am
I had trouble with the fact that Mace Windu was a better fighter (at least with the light sabor) then Yoda because he out dueled the super powerful sith lord. Even though Yoda could repell sith lightning without a light sabor it appears he wasn’t as skillful as Windu. Is it because Samuel L jackson had to be cool? Like Shaft?
Jenna said,
June 20, 2005 at 2:21 pm
Why is there no direction in this movie??? George Lucus what were you thinking and does anyone else think that he made this movie just because he had to, I feel like the said f-you people here’s your damn movie and spit it out. It was full of one-liners and bad….bad acting. I always knew directing was important but good god it’s completely necessary some actors will under act and some completely overact !!! And I agree with Leopoldo also.