Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) Review

 Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) 7.5/10

Hello and welcome to another movie review. To round out the Star Wars prequel trilogy, today I’m going to go over the third (sixth) film, Revenge of the Sith. This movie was released theatrically on May 19, 2005, with the movie being written and directed by George Lucas. The movie was a box office hit and is considered to be the best of the prequel trilogy.

I absolutely love this movie. I have seen it so many times and even saw it when it was re-released in theaters for its 20th anniversary. However, just like with the rest of the series, I have been meaning to rewatch it without the rose tinted glasses. Even with its faults, I still love it to pieces and consider it to be one of my personal favorite films. Let’s begin.

War has been raging and ravaging across the galaxy for 3 long years. The Separatists, led by Count Dooku and their new military leader General Grievous, have enacted a plan to capture Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and use him as a hostage. After a daring rescue by Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, General Grievous has gone into hiding, prolonging the war even further. As the Jedi search for Grievous, Palpatine plants seeds of doubt and hate into Anakin’s head towards the Jedi Council, who continue to infuriate him with their decisions. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Padme is pregnant. Anakin, who is now suffering from the same nightmares as he did with his mother, is looking for a way to save Padme from certain death. As conflicts escalate, Palpatine sets in motion the final phases of his plan to take over the galaxy and rule it with an iron fist.

I know this movie gets a “bad” rap thanks to its writing, but I have to say this movie is much better written compared to Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. I’ve seen people say that the movie didn’t do a good job at portraying Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side and that certain plot points were down right dumb or could have been better overall. To that, I kinda agree with, to an extent. When it comes to showing Anakin’s betrayal, as a whole, the movie did an excellent job, but there were tiny details that made me say “that could have been handled better.” I’m mainly referring to the famous (or infamous) “Darth Plagueis” speech from Palpatine. This whole scene could have had better dialogue to have it flow better. Anakin and Palpatine are discussing Grievous and the Jedi Council, but then just randomly switches to a discussion about the Dark Side. I get what Lucas was trying to do here, having this speech be a way to seduce Anakin towards the Dark Side as well as discredit the Jedi teachings, but just the dialogue leading up to it could have been so much better.

Another issue I have with the writing are the lovey dovey scenes with Anakin and Padme. Thankfully these aren’t AS bad or AS cringe as AotC, but these could have been better. That scene where Anakin is looking at Padme, admiring her beauty as she discusses how she wants to raise their kid was pretty wholesome at first, but then some of the worst dialogue happened and just ruins the fucking scene. “You’re so beautiful because I’m so in love with you.” My guy what the fuck are you saying? Just say she looks great without making it sound like you have never spoken to a woman before. You’ve been married to her for three years now, come on. “Hold me like you used to, back when there was no war and politics. Just our love.” Padme please. This isn’t fucking Romeo and Juliet. And i get these are supposed to be space opera movies (even the original films were a bit over-the-top), but this is just fucking cringe. I swear George Lucas has never actually talked to a woman before, despite being married and having children lmao.

Another nitpick I have goes to some of the action scenes, particularly the main lightsaber fights (and I know I’m going to get some hate for this lmao). First is the lightsaber duel with Dooku. You can tell this fight was so fucking staged. The way all three of them were moving, you can tell they were deliberately aiming for each other’s lightsabers, instead of going for actual strikes at the body. There’s also a lot of kicking in the movie, which I found to be kinda weird lol. Idk, with how brilliant of a duelist Dooku is, you’d think he would be much better equipped to deal with these two. Also, when Dooku was about to die, why didn’t he blurt out that Palpatine was the Sith Lord right then and there. Regardless if this actually had any affect on the matter is another story, but Dooku was just there not doing anything to change his situation. Again, Dooku is a brilliant person, and yet he choked here? The only excuses I can think of are 1. He’s in shock that he lost both of his hands and he can’t speak, or 2. Palpatine is doing something to prevent him from saying anything. Regardless, I do think this fight could have been handled better.

The second fight is Kenobi vs Grievous. For the supposed Jedi killer (like the one we saw in Tartokovsky’s Clone Wars series), Grievous felt like he was NERFED in this movie. [I know there’s an entire other Clone Wars series that is “canon” to the lore now, but I’m looking at this movie as it was released, and this was released after Clone Wars was finished, in which George Lucas gave the thumbs up on]. I get from a production standpoint they can’t have Grievous acting like a fucking monkey climbing all over the place and doing some of the most asinine shit possible, but Grievous literally feels like he’s not that big of a threat as he should be, considering how easy it was for Obi-Wan to defeat him. Actually, you know what? I do want that ridiculous crazy Grievous we saw in Clone Wars. That mf was a menace, not this version of Grievous.

Third fight is Yoda vs Sidious, probably the most underwhelming fight of the entire movie. This movie gave us one of the most hyped up duels of all time and it was fucking squandered. Two masters of the Force, masters of both sides, finally clashing. And then Yoda pussies out? HELL NO MAN! GET YOUR ASS BACK IN THERE AND CONTINUE THE FIGHT! These two were jumping around, lightsabers clashing, and flexing their Force powers in one of the greatest displays of Force abilities ever. This fight could have easily continued on for another 10 minutes or so, but noooooo. Instead, Palpatine easily knocks Yoda to the ground and Yoda says “I’m out” and dips. Come on man you could have easily got back up and continued. This fight has always bothered me but I could never place why exactly until now. God this was such a bummer.

And the final fight, Anakin vs Obi-Wan. Here’s my issue with the fight: it got too ridiculous (and I know I’m setting a double standard with what I just said with the Grievous fight). Here’s the thing, in Clone Wars, it set a precedent for these fights and these characters, but there was still a level of groundedness. The Anakin vs Obi-Wan fight started out incredibly well, but once they got on that pipe and they’re balancing on it and swinging at each other is where I kinda checked out of the fight. Why the fuck would they go on that path? It’s ridiculous, and not in a fun way. This leads to them going into unnecessary danger (like an actual lava flow) and it’s just dumb. Had the fight moved more naturally towards the fire so that Anakin can burn himself, that would have been fine, but jumping onto a fucking thin-ass pipe for absolutely no reason was really stupid. And I’m not even dissing the actual fight choreography. Both Hayden and Ewan did great here. The way this fight progressed reminded me of the anime Baki (if you know, you know lmao). I love the beginning of the fight and the end (the whole high ground thing), but that transition in the fight was really fucking stupid.

So how is the rest of the movie? I actually really enjoyed this. Anakin’s frustration with the Council, Palpatine seeping his claws into him, and the rest of the warfare shown was really interesting. Honestly one of my favorite scenes of the movie is when Obi-Wan is telling Anakin about his off-the-record mission and Anakin loses it. It is such a great scene and I need to commend Hayden, Ewan, the music, camera work, and everything else. The scene with Order 66 will always be heartbreaking, and of course the way the movie wraps up by setting up everything for A New Hope is glorious.

As for production, the movie looks awesome. I absolutely love the designs for all of the ships, military equipment, the different planets, and everything in between. The movie is full of beautiful shots and I love the overall darker tone of the film. I do need to mention a slight inconsistency. When Anakin is about to slay the Separatist leaders, his eyes are yellow (showing he has in fact turned to the Dark Side). Later on, his eyes are back to normal when he meets with Padme and is fighting Obi-Wan. Only when he is dismembered and caught fire do his eyes go back to yellow. This inconsistency bothers me more than it should.

And the music. *Chef’s Kiss* It is perfection. John Williams really outdid himself with this score. All the original music and the way it reuses some of the older tracks (both from previous prequel movies and the original trilogy). So many scenes hit harder because of his compositions. One of the best music scores ever. Period.

Acting is pretty decent here. Nothing is A-List like I would hope, but for what we got, this cast did really well. Best performances go to Hayden Christensen (Anakin), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan), Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine/Darth Sidious), and Temuera Morrison (all the Clones).

Revenge of the Sith is a good movie and I will die on this hill. I know there’s people out there who dislike this movie for X, Y, and Z and that’s alright. But to say this (and the rest of the Prequels) are complete dogshit needs to get their head examined. I love this movie, even with its faults, and I will be rewatching these movies again in the future. Speaking of the future, I do intend to check out the dreaded sequel trilogy at some point, but I do need a break from Star Wars for a bit. Until my next review, stay frosty.

Thanks for reading.

This is Zorgak, signing off.