Retro Review: Revenge of the Sith

Apparently I got my posting order wrong, and posted Solo before this. Ah well...

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We all know where this is going, where it has to go... how it has to end.



One of the downsides of doing direct prequels is that the story has to end up where you know it will, and because we know who the key players are, we know who lives, and who dies, though we might not know exactly the route taken to get there.

For example, how does Padme die? How are the Jedi killed off? How does Luke end up on Tatooine, while Leia ends up on Alderaan?

Episode III continues to suffer from much that plagued Episodes I and II, namely the terrible dialogue (which leads to flat performances), and an over reliance on CGI. So little of the prequels feels real in the way things felt real in the original trilogy largely because they aren't real. There's nothing there for the actors to see, to interact with. Green screens and characters that aren't really there make for a boring performance.

But I do have to give the CGI artists props for their work. It is all very grandiose, appropriately visually stunning as a good space opera should be. I just wish more of it had been real. Thankfully this is a lesson that the later movies and shows are taking into account, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Chancellor Palpatine has played everyone, from the Jedi Council to the Senate to the Separatists... and as he corrupts Anakin rather blatantly, playing on his fears of Padme's death in childbirth, he admits to being the sith lord, and then waits for the Jedi to come to him. Serious power move on his part. Anakin's fall is possibly the best bit of acting Hayden Christensen performs in the movies. At least it's the first bit I actually believed.

Kenobi's heart break also felt real. When he watched the security footage of Anakin killing the younglings? When they crossed sabres on Mustafar, when he left him for dead... I believed that too.

One of the worst parts of the movie, and the one that gets brought up regularly (and deservedly) is Padme's dying of a broken heart. But did she? Palpatine couldn't let her live. Did he kill her? Honestly, that seems much more likely... I wish the idea was better supported in the movie though.