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

Sick Product of a Sick System

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

My favorite of the Prequels. The movies flies along giving us the fall of Anakin to the dark side. The end of the Jedi. The rise of the Empire. Order 66. Luke (he's the oldest!) and Leia. Great battles, including two of the best light saber duels in the entire series. This ends on a low note but is the best of the Prequels.

This episode largely revolves around Anikan being of a part of the trap set up by the Lord Chancellor. The biggest reveal was that the Chancellor himself was the Lord Sith. The Jedi make efforts for ending the dark forces but the Chancellor manages to poison the mind of Anikan who turns towards dark forces with the bait of protection of Padme's life using his powers later. This part was a sharp turn from the earlier ones where are story seemed predictable but now Anikan makes the wrong choice and transforms into invincible Lord Darth Vader. The Jedi forces are largely killed at the hands of a treachery planned leaving only few like Master Yoda. The fighting sequence between Anikan and Obi Wan was breathtaking with unprecedented results. Interested to see how the Jedi reassemble to fight the dark forces.

Everyone loves ROTS, and don't get me wrong I love it too, but it's still a prequel with hokey acting, dated visuals and some bland characters. McGregor, Oz, and Jackson make the prequels worth watching, and as I said before this is a good film, but to say it's the best Star Wars film is a long shot for me. The prequels took focus from the stories away in favor of world building, but this film focuses back on the story and puts things on track to stick the landing. (albeit a little bumpy) This definently has some of the best sequences and scenes in any SW film. The Mustafar fight, Order 66, General Grevious vs Obi-Wan. As I said before the visuals for this film have become SOOOO dated it's not even funny, normally I wouldn't complain, but The Lord of the Rings came out around the same time, and this is Star Wars they are known for there Visual Effects. Hayden Christiansen's acting is bad, but I blame that on Lucas' direction, and Portman clearly just isn't into it (feeling more like a daytime SOAP actor, and yeah I know Star Wars is like a soap opera, but it's also a big budget blockbuster movie, so come on.) I prefer The Original Trilogy and The Sequel Trilogy over this film, but it's well made and I still get goosebumps when I see that mask draped over Vader's face.

Episode III depicted Anakin's final descent to the dark side, the culmination of Palpatine's plans for the previous two films (maybe not the intended plot of the film but I think Palpatine is the best character of the Original and Prequel series)It was a good film up to point, I can't say I care for the gushy romance scenes with Anakin and Padme.The fight scene at the start with Dooku was very good. As it Episode II however Obi-Wan seemed again very feeble as he was too easily bested by the sigh Lord and pinned under the called platform (which curiously did no damage?) The fight against Anakin was again perfectly choreograph he'd and Dookus defeat did not seem at all staged or implausible as in Episode II hen Anakin lost his hand.Anakin and Obi-Wan are separated by their roles in the ongoing Clone Wars, and Palpatine makes his final moves to turning Anakin. He slowly reveals himself to be a Sith Lord, first by introducing Anakin to the idea of studying the dark side - using Anakin's insecurities in his social life to confuse him further (specifically his dreams about Padme's death). If Anakin had had his wits about him, he'd have caught the hint at his own heritage. A Sith Lord capable of influencing the medicloreons to create life, and since Episode I it was known that Anakin was conceived by medicloreons - but he's too self-centred and sees only his own uses for the powers being described.Then Palpatine fully reveals himself as a Sith Lord, which Anakin reports to the Jedi Council as Palpaine knew he would. Knowing the temptation of the dark side powers was too irresistible, Anakin interrupted Mace Windu as he was about to kill Palpatine, saving the Sith Lord and causing Windu's death.For a toughened Jedi Master Windu did make a scene about loosing his hand - we have seen a lot of people losing limbs in Star Wars (Darth Mail was completely sliced in half an Episode I, Anakin lost a hand and part of his arm in Episode II, Dooku lost both hands earlier in this film, Anakin looses his other arm and both legs later in this film, Luke lost a hand in Episode V, and Anakin/Darth Vader's robotic hand is cut off in Episode VI) But no-one made as much noise about it as Windu did.But back to Anakin and Palpatine. This too was part of Palpatines plan to turn Anakin; knowing he would be too distraught to turn to any Jedi after that betrayal, making Palpatine his only choice.Anakin then helped Palpatine destroy the Jedi Order as he had wanted all-along, thus allowing him to reorganise the Republic into a Galactic Empire. Palpatine then even turns the Republics army, the Clones, against the Jedi while continuing the war.Having escaped the 'Jedi purge' Yoda faces Palpatine, however is defeated and chooses to go into exile. Meanwhile Obi-Wan faces Anakin.And here's where the film fails in my eyes: Anakin and Obi-Wan fight in a long battle which ends with Obi-Wan cutting Anakin's arm and legs off and abandoning him to burn to death on Mustafar. Palpatine then comes to Mustafar and saves Anakin from an otherwise certain and painful death and outfits him with a life support suit. By this point Anakin had fulfilled his role in Palpatine's plan, therefore like Dooku and Darth Maul before him, Anakin should have been thrown aside - yes this would ,earn that Obi-Wan and Yoda where the only other force-users therefore it is unlikely Palpatine could get a new apprentice, but the Empire is his and the Jedi are defeated, so why would he need another apprentice anyway? Palpatines compassion for Anakin weakened his character and showed him to be not as evil as he should be for a Sith Lord.Palpatine then tells Vader that Padme has died because of him. Saving Padmes life had been the underlying reason for Anakin turning to the dark side, so his despair at her death sealed him to Palpatines side.Palpatine then goes ahead with turning the Republic into an Empire and reforms the Clone army into an Imperial army with Vader at its helm. Palpatine had shown in the past two films, and again here, that his true strengths were in politics so giving Vader command of his military thus free himself to manage the Empire was a smart decision.