Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Star Wars Movie #6 (Please click the links to read my reviews of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: Generations)

End the Star Wars Program! Six Movies is Enough!

Synopsis: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

Blurb From the DVD Jacket: “Experience the breathtaking scope of this final chapter in spectacular digital clarity and relive all the epic battles including the final climactic lightsaber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan.”

What Did I Learn?: Apparently, even veteran actors consider prosthetic facial makeup to be a license to wildly overact.

You Might Like This Movie If: You want to learn more about Darth Vader's wacky family. [Oh, by the way: it's Friday]

Really?: 1) So, let’s recap the incredible coinky-dinks...Anakin/Vader created Luke, Leia, and C-3PO and flew missions regularly with R2-D2, Boba Fett tries to kill Ben Kenobi, and Chewbacca fought alongside Yoda in the Clone Wars. 2) Padme, the woman who led a commando unit against the Viceroy, and launched a vote of non-confidence against the Chancellor in The Phantom Menace, and then joined the Jedi knights in taking on the droid army in Attack of the Clones somehow loses the will to live? Sure, whatevs... 3) Hmmm... Anakin has weird dreams about Padme dying in childbirth, and then Palpatine tells him (apropos of nothing) about Sith magic that can prevent people from kicking the bucket. And then Anakin slaughters the Trade Federation goons even though they said they were expecting him, and they mention the name of Darth Sidious. Funny how he never once suspects Palpy might be using him. 4) Couldn't Palpatine have figured out an easier way to bump off Count Dooku than to allow himself to be kidnapped, and then almost die in a crash-landing? 5) The more I think about it, Luke's near-conversion to the Dark Side of the Force in Return of the Jedi seems like bullshit. Anakin was clearly a disturbed young man, Palpatine befriended him, he wanted to save Padme's life, and he objected to Mace Windu attempting to kill his friend; Luke was just a little angry. Even if Luke had turned to the Dark Side, why would he have suddenly become Palpatine's apprentice? Why couldn't he have simply killed both the Emperor and Vader because he didn't like either of them?

Rating: Revenge of the Sith opens with a big space battle where the audience can't really tell who is who, and the action is too fast to follow, anyway. That scene represents so much of what's wrong with the Star Wars prequels: George Lucas was given the special effects he needed to present his unique vision to the world, but he never asked himself if anyone wanted to watch a long saga with a predictable and unhappy ending, or if his creations were actually good movies.  

Revenge of the Sith is the best of the prequels, but that's a bit like declaring yourself valedictorian of summer school. Much of the dialogue is cringe-inducing (especially the scenes between Anakin and Padme, or when Palpatine calls Yoda his "little green friend"), and the action sequences require such super-human strength and dexterity from the movie's characters that I couldn't relate to them, and tuned out. I also had trouble believing Anakin's conversion. That said, Ian McDiarmid is wonderful (pre-prosthetic makeup) as the charming Sith Lord, and Jar Jar's part is thankfully almost non-existent. 6/10 stars.  

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121766/?ref_=sr_2