Originally published 5/21/2005
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Director: George Lucas
Writer: George Lucas
Producer: Rick McCallum
Stars: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Anthony Daniels, Temuera Morrison, Christopher Lee, with the voices of Frank Oz and James Earl Jones
By themselves the “prequels” in the Star Wars saga – The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and now Revenge of the Sith – are not a cohesive series. They serve primarily to lead us to Episodes IV, V and VI, the original trilogy which proved so major a landmark in movie entertainment, science-fiction and youth culture when they were released from 1977-1983. As entry points into this galaxy-spanning saga the prequels have been both overwhelming and obtuse, adequate appreciation of them depends on foreknowledge of which characters and events are key to the business at hand, and where said business is going.
Which is why this third episode feels like the movie writer/director George Lucas has been waiting to make all this time. At last he needs not hold back, delay or vamp his way through another movie, and can depict fully what was only spoken of in the first trilogy – the fall of the once-beautiful Republic, the extermination of the peacekeeping Jedi, the birth of the twins Luke and Leia to Anakin Skywalker’s secret bride Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), and the painful transformation of Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) into the Dark Side-serving half-machine Darth Vader. And the urgency and energy with which Lucas depicts it makes it closest of all the “prequels” to being the movie fans have waited all this time to see.
“War!” screams the traditional opening title crawl, and audiences are plunged right into a desperate mission by Skywalker and his Jedi mentor Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to rescue the Republic’s Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) from the clutches of separatist leader Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and his military enforcer General Grievous (voice of Matthew Wood). This involves flying tiny fighter craft through an indescribable tapestry of large-scale ship-to-ship combat, then infiltrating Grievous’ command ship and fighting through a legion of combat droids. The screen is filled and frantic as it often is in the new Star Wars, though undeniably impressive through this entire sequence.
Even for Jedi of Kenobi and Skywalker’s skill it is no small task, and it makes for a rollicking kickoff. Of course, if they knew Palpatine’s true intentions, they might have saved themselves the bother. We are now in the final phases of his master plan to seize complete power in the Galaxy, and all that is left is to force another vote expanding the “emergency powers” he so reluctantly accepted at the beginning of the Clone Wars, and eliminate the Jedi.
Key to both goals is the turning of Skywalker to the Dark Side of the Force, where his roiling emotions can give him power, but at the cost of his soul. Always more powerful than mature, he is already been blanching at the Jedi Council’s distrust of Palpatine and refusal to promote him through the ranks in line with his rapidly-growing skills.
Palpatine is as crafty here as he has been undermining the democracy of the Republic, playing on Skywalker’s fear for the safety of his pregnant wife and intimating that a true master of the Dark Side can even cheat death if he wishes. Skywalker, still wounded from his failure to save his mother, is dangerously curious.
This descending curtain of darkness envelopes the whole adventure despite its flashes of humor and excitement. Although Lucas is respectful enough of his family audience to keep a few of the more horrifying events off-screen, this is still the most bloody and grim Star Wars movie by any measure, not afraid to bisect bodies or show the full effects of a fiery disfigurement.
As always we bounce from planet to planet, this time to appreciate the rough and beautiful wilderness of the Wookie home planet Kashyyyk, and tremble at the intimidating heat of the volcano world Mustafar. We get dynamic action spectacles only made possible by the digital effects wizards at Industrial Light and Magic – capital ships the size of cities gliding by each other and delivering broadsides like an outer space Master and Commander, or the floating pods in the Senate Chamber being flung through the air like giant hockey pucks.
And another menagerie of new creatures and vehicles is paraded before us, in that Vegas buffet style where so much space is given over to so many varieties, the hope is at least a few will be worth our attention. But the time comes when yet another bizarre alien, yet another droid design, does less to inspire our imagination and more to pummel our ability to focus. For all these prequels Lucas has been mindful to a fault of merchandising, to the extent that characters get their second in the spotlight even at the expense of narrative momentum, and action sequences seem padded in order to better show their potential as levels in video games.
That is not as much the case here, Episode III has less fat on its epic running time than both its predecessors. Perhaps, again, it is because finally there’s so much to accomplish and so little time left in which to do it.
The movie’s greater intensity benefits its characters, who are otherwise flatly written and indifferently directed as usual. The most dynamic performance is once again given by an entirely digital character, Yoda (voiced, as always, by Muppet-master Frank Oz), who gets more chances to show off his lightsaber skills. Sadly, the preponderance of dialogue he has shows that his bass-ackwards speaking style is better suited for vague philosophical musings than for urgent exposition.
Grievous, too, is an interesting character; seemingly only eyes, a heart, and a set of wheezing lungs left behind thick droid armor. Apparently more is told of his violent history in the Cartoon Network’s Clone Wars series. I cannot help but think the only time Lucas really pays close attention to the flesh-and-blood actors is when he is wishing he could grab a mouse and yank their arm to just where he wants it. Again they are wooden and hesitant, as if unsure what is due to be painted over the blue box within which they are trying to emote.
There is ignorant fraudulence to his romantic dialogue and lazy contradiction elsewhere. “Only a Sith deals in absolutes! Kenobi spits at Skywalker when his pupil wheels out the old you’re-either-with-me-or-against-me bit, but minutes later Kenobi is arguing “The Chancellor is evil!” without a hint of irony. Yoda, too, has a bit of flim-flam about how Jedi aren’t supposed to miss loved ones (since it’s a path to the Dark Side – everything is a path to the Dark Side with him), then watch later as he tells a couple of Wookies how much he is going to miss them.
Of course as an audience member I wouldn’t be so moved to nitpick, so yearning for these easy little problems to be fixed, if this movie, and the cumulative effect of the now six-movie Star Wars cycle, had not so profoundly inspired and entertained me over the years. Revenge of the Sith is the worthiest addition to the canon to come along in a generation, an explosive and expansive pop space opera deserving of its brand, and I know just how good an Episode III it is by how eager I was after viewing to get right on to Episode IV