SIDF26 Spotlights: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Part 1

I love Shakespeare. As my peers roll their eyes at having to read King Henry IV or Romeo and Juliet, I give a silent "Yes" motion in the back of my mind. Which is very odd considering that many film adaptations of his work have been monumental failures. 1996 Romeo + Juliet, Twelfth Night with Cary Elwes and Helena Bonham Carter. Though I can't say he's rolling in his grave. Enter Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, the closest thing we will ever get to a perfect Shakesperian movie...In space.

The film begins establishing that Anakin and Obi Wan's relationship has softened since Attack of the Clones (And yes, that film was a masterpiece as well, though not as much as this.) In Attack of the Clones, Obi Wan represented a sort of strict, overly-cautious father to the rebellious son. In ROTS, he's more of a proud father and a friend watching his son go off to college. And one can see why. Anakin is far more mature here than in the previous movie and far more wise. And yes, Hayden Christensen does a fantastic job in this film. I liked his performance in Attack of the Clones. I didn't think it should win an Oscar, but it was decent. I really loved how he conveyed his conflicting emotions and personalities into a very nervous, confused character, while still making him very likeable and sympathetic. Here, we have a similar character only far more mature, consumed by fear and sadness, the one thing he could never let go off since his entry into the Jedi Order. Because of this, his eventual fall is even more tragic to watch.

One of many scenes that doesn't get enough attention is the duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan against the highly underrated Count Dooku. Obi Wan is eventually defeated and the battle goes to Anakin and Dooku.

"My powers have doubled since we last met""Good...Twice the pride...Double the fall."Perfect...Just perfect. The delivery, the irony, the reference to works like Macbeth and even the Bible with Lucifer's fall. Even the duel is done rather well, as we see the calmness of Dooku (Who I never considered an evil character: Rather "Good goals, bad means", I could write another essay on whether or not Dooku is almost an anti-hero) and the rage of Anakin. This culminates in Anakin taking a hand for a hand, bringing a terrified Dooku to his knees, symbolizing not only the fear in Anakin throughout the film, but the horror of all around him who watch him become the Galaxy's greatest monster. Palpatine orders Anakin to kill Dooku. Anakin at first refuses, but eventually complies. The look of self-disappointment in Hayden here is one of several moments that really prove how great he is in this film. And of course, McDiarmid simply nails the hammer on the head in this one. He is very seductive and manipulative while coming across as sympathetic to someone who wouldn't know any better...Innocent almost. I could imagine somebody falling for his charms.

The ship begins to shake as it appears that the barbaric General Grievous has caught news of our heroes. Palpatine urges Anakin to abandon Obi Wan."Leave him, or we'll never make it""His fate will be the same as ours"One of my favorite lines in the movie, I love how much this emphasizes the themes of Anakin's attachment as a weakness. We see later that his attachment to Padme is what causes his downfall into darkness, yet at the beginning it almost looks like a positive trait as he is risking his own life to save Obi Wan's life.

Unfortunately, Obi Wan and Anakin are captured on their way out by Grievous, a powerful cyborg. One of my biggest complaints about the mediocre Episode I was that Maul was just put in so we could see a character with a dual-lightsaber. I was worried Grievous would be similar eye-candy. Not so. Here, he is a metaphor for the lost humanity in Darth Vader that we see later, a being of pure rage and cruel cunning. He embodies all of Anakin's darkest natures, and we can see why Obi-Wan isn't the biggest fan of droids

To be continued...

@spideyivydaredevilfan26: Looking good already =P

Bump

This is pretty cool :)

I think Revenge of the Sith is the best of the prequels

In all honesty I disagree with you over this. However I think you did a really good review.

Thanks man, part 2 is coming today! I may also review Attack of the Clones at some point, I loved that movie too. :)

Glad we can agree to disagree. And glad you like it as this is not the end. :)

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I can't take this seriously.....

Did you read it or just fanboy out?

Nah, I read it. I should preface by saying I am one of those people that loathe the prequels. There should have just been the 3 Star Wars films and thats it, but Goerge Lucas claimed he has "to tell the whole story", in reality though, he just wanted to make a shit load of money of toys and merchandise. While i will admit that Revenge of the Sith is more entertaining than the previous two movies, it is still pretty bad.

It's not entertainment. It is a beautiful masterpiece with plenty of brains, heart(break) and complex themes/characters. If you didn't like it, that's fine, as I respect your opinion but I pity that you can't appreciate such beautiful works of art as this and Attack of the Clones (More on that one at a later time.) However, what I can't respect is that you would say Lucas "just wants to make more money". THAT is something I can't take seriously, and actually seriously disgusts me that you could possibly disrespect one of the greatest filmmakers of all time that has more talent than the hacks that attack him have in their fingers.

*clap hands*

Yes, great review on a painfully underrated movie.

Are you serious about Lucas?? The best Star Wars movie is the one he had almost nothing to do with, you know......I am not saying the guy is devoid of talent but when it comes to the Star Wars prequels...kind of fell flat.

*claps*

I wouldn't call it a masterpiece, but come on, it's not a bad movie by any means. I mean, the original Star Wars movies weren't exactly Shakespeare either. It was all just in good fun.

@spideyivydaredevilfan26: We've already talked about several of our opinions concerning the prequels, so I've accepted we are not going to completely agree on each of the points we are going to make, but I will agree that their was a lot of though put into this review.

First, the 1996 R + J movie was a good idea that was poorly executed (a similar fault that the first 2 prequels share). No one in this millennium is going to sit through a traditional version on Shakespeare's take when you can see an action movie with better graphics in the next theater. That is why the studio tried to modernize it. I'm not going to nitpick every detail about that film but I will say that it went to too many extremes with the concept. On a related issue, since Romeo and Juliet essentially defined the category of romance I would say that no other work of literature or film equally represents it. If you fish deeply enough you can turn any plot containing romance into R+J. I could just as easily say Friday the Thirteenth is the closest representation to Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and it would be just as equally valid.

I was going to write about Christensen's acting but I felt like this would be pointless.

Secondly, I would also argue that all three of the Emperor's acolytes were each misused in the prequels (Maul, Dooku, and Grievous) meaning none of them were actually responsible for making any of the prequels "masterpieces". I'll start with your favorite Count Dooku or Darth Tyranus. My problem with him in the films is that his only real value to the franchise was to foreshadow what Anakin would become. This ultimately makes him more of a plot device than an actual villain. In his defense I would say that he was the only actual strategist of this group and certain points his intellect seemed to even surpass Vader's, but the problem I have with this is that Dooku intellect seemed to weaken the Emperor's character. Darth Maul's main problem in the prequels is that he was effectively rendered unrelatable to the audience. This is because there was no efforts made to explore his origins in Phantom Menace. Despite being the most devoted and evil servant of Darth Sideous, the end result was Maul being portrayed as a red psychopath with a cool lightsaber (which he engineered btw). There was a lot more to Darth Maul than fighting prowess but we never got to see it. General Grievous was often seen as another superficial character with more style than actual substance. This is a valid criticism but he actually created a bigger threat to the order because he was responsible for the deaths of many more jedi than either Dooku or Maul combined. I'm not sure how a character like this could be fixed because his sole purpose was limited to causing as much destruction as possible, so even if he did survive Order 66 would have rendered him useless anyway.

Anyhoo that's my two cents. Give me a shoutout when you do part two.

Done. Next review is here, shout out and all. :)

It's a nice review that you're writing, and I appreciate the effort, the trouble is you're trying to sell expired milk to dairy farmers.

In order to acknowledge any of the points you're making, the audience has to move past several things, the first being that virtually everything exists because at any one time at least one character is written terribly, or being utterly incompetent. There is never a "decent" moment in the movie that isn't facilitated by something incredibly stupid. Anakin defeating Dooku might have been a nice moment... except for Obi-Wan looking so ludicrously incompetent that one would be forgiven for thinking he's never been in a duel before. Later, we see that Obi-Wan is more than capable of defeating Anakin, despite Anakin experiencing a huge rise in power. So why is he so useless here? You say that Palpatine's comments allude to Anakin's attachment as a weakness, and that's fine, but it also requires us to believe that Anakin is a complete f*cking imbecile. When a politician keeps telling you to murder people, and you don't raise an eyebrow as to his motives, then something is wrong. And that something is the script.

Additionally, you're overlooking the fact that the Direction is beyond amateur. Every talking scene is shot/reverse shot. There is more to a "masterpiece" as you're calling this film, than writing, or acting. How that story is told is crucial, and this story is told woefully. The galaxy is at a major crossroads, Anakin is experiencing a romantic hero fall, but everyone is just casually walking around, spouting exposition. Or they're sitting down, having tea. There is no urgency in the film. Children are slaughtered, Anakin goes insane, but everyone's just walking around, chatting like it's Sunday at the Country Club.

@fadetoblackbolt: You know, I actually didn't think Anakin was stupid for executing Dooku. I mean, the man WAS a terrorist responsible for countless deaths as well as a war criminal. Execution seems sensible, and at worst odd at the hands of Skywalker. And I thought the story was told fine. There was a great deal of really smart themes about codes, morality, attachment, innocence, determination, greed and above all fear. One of my favorite scenes is when Anakin is at the Jedi temple and Padme is at her apartment. they are miles apart yet they cal feel each others presence. The cinematography, the emotions delivered by Hayden and Port,an, it is one of my fave scenes of all time. I'll go more into it when I get later in my review. And from what I remember, when Anakin killed the kids, there was nothing but a change of tone, particularly in Obi Wan. Just because a film feels like taking a break and talking for a little bit does not mean its bad. The Wolfman, Titanic, Signs, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, The Road, Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Village, The Godfather all have scenes like this and are all masterpieces. What makes ROTS any different other than its a Star Wars movie? iMO, the fact that we get some real beautiful, softer scenes filled with tension makes it the best of the Star Wars movies, and an edge over Attack of the Clones, which I also thought was a masterpiece.

Obi-Wan beat Anakin because Annie was conflicted, his emotion was all over the place and that was getting the best of him, while Obi-Wan's was not. Not to mention Ben knew Anakin's style better then he probably did himself seeing as how he was his master. Of course though I am looking from the EU perspective (which was made clear there) Another reason why EU>>>>Movies.

@spideyivydaredevilfan26: You really have to stop using the word masterpiece for every movie that you like a lot. I do it too, but you're going overboard, mate. Harry Potter? Seriously?

Anyway, as for the Anakin being stupid part, he wasn't stupid for executing Dooku, I'd have done the same thing. He was stupid for not raising an eyebrow at Palpatine's urgency. Wouldn't a political prisoner of Dooku's substantial importance be better for the Republic than his head? He's leading the Separatist army for Heaven's sake. Capturing him and gaining military secrets is much better than any sort of "morale" victory, since his army is full of droids and they don't have morale.

Palpatine is basically sitting there going "I'M F*CKING EVIL" throughout the whole thing. And that's a crime in of itself, while all of those themes you talk about may be present, they're also so painfully unsubtle that they lose any merit they may have had. Everything just slaps the viewer in the face.

@dccomicsrule2011 said:

That's all justification for poor writing.

He wasn't conflicted, he'd just murdered a bunch of kids. The guy was full blown evil by that point. The novel may have been excellent, but Stover was still trying to make sense of complete idiocy.

Not to mention you shouldn't have to read the novelisation to explain plot holes in the film.

@fadetoblackbolt: Yeah that's why I said the EU made it clear xD while the movie not so much. But Lucas did comment on Anakin's arrogant's which also played a part in his demise.

"There's a lot of discussion about arrogance both on the part of the Emperor and everybody else, and so the last real thing that, uh, Anakin says other than 'I hate you,' is 'You underestimate my power,' which is sort of a height of arrogance..."

--Taken from The Revenge of the Sith commentary

@fadetoblackbolt: Oh yeah...Forgot about Harry Potter there, I will admit to that. but back to the debate. And Palpatine does have a charisma about him, he is very wise and is very good at making himself look more like a wise man and less like a greedy dictator. Not to mention, Dooku did sever Anakins arm so his rage could have blinded his rationality. Still, I wouldn't call him an idiot. And as for the kids thing, in his eyes those kids were slaves to the Jedi. Their lives were over the day the Republic found out they were force sensitive, and while I don't agree, he was conflicted. But yeah, he Harry Potter masterpiece thing was a gigantic accident and I will fess to that.

Not a fan of the movie or the other prequels.

@spideyivydaredevilfan26:

That's why I have no issue with the Darth Plagueis scene, that was well done and showed that Palpatine would get in Anakin's ear while they were one on one and affect him. If it was more like that, with Palpatine casually leading Anakin, rather than gleefully telling him what to do, it would have been easier to swallow. The Plagueis scene is probably the best part of the film, imo.

But in the scene we're talking about, Palpatine isn't leaving breadcrumbs for Anakin to pick up, he's just saying KILL HIM, BRO. Anakin wasn't rage-driven either, because, as you said earlier, he was conflicted and thinking it over. You don't do that during blind rage.

@dccomicsrule2011 said:

But what power did Obi-Wan underestimate? Anakin's jumping ability :P

@fadetoblackbolt: lol the fool should have known Obi-Wan is the boss of the high ground remember what happen to Darth Maul? =P

@dccomicsrule2011: Yeah, he got robot-spider legs and his brother showed up =P

@fadetoblackbolt: Till this day I still say TCW Darth Maul look like a fool -_-

No! No! We are not going to talk about the Clone Wars show here, we are NOT! My defenses can only go so far!

Even still, what was Anakin supposed to do? "Oh, you told me to kill someone so that means you are evil and I should make a move that could make me look like an idiot if I'm wrong and get me expelled from the Order." I also feel like Palpatine had a bit of leverage over Anakin, as he knows about the Sand People incident, and could easily convince the Council that Anakin is delusional and evil. I don't think Anakin had much of a choice, and I think many of the other Jedi would have done the same thing. And you are right, the Plagueis scene was done rather well.

Shame. It really is one of the best movies of all time in my humble opinion. :(

@spideyivydaredevilfan26: Fair enough.

@dccomicsrule2011@fadetoblackbolt@thatguywithheadphones@jonny_anonymous

Part 2 is up...

...And so is Part 3! :)

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Ah! I am so glad you did this review. I will begin to read all parts. =D Many thanks. ^__^

Thanks so much! Will probably do one on Attack of the Clones as well, as I thought that movie was great too.

ROTS review library is here.

Your welcome! =D My teacher who's a Star Wars fan showed me a deleted scene two years ago of Padme introducing Anakin to her parents. =O That'd probably be my favorite scene:

I think it starts at 3:50.

I'll check your library out. Many thanks! =D