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| Review: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith | | Date Created: May 23, 2005, 01:48 PM |
| Fair warning before I delve into my review of Revenge of the Sith. Before opening weekend I avoided revealing any spoiler material, but to fully engage the issues surrounding the final Star Wars movie, I thought it best to have it open including spoilers. So if you want to remain spoiler-free and haven't watched EPIII yet, stop reading this review and consider yourself warned. |
 Before I delve into the actual plot, visual effects, and acting portion of the reviews, I'd like to discuss the differences in the available media for Episode III. I've now watched Episode III: Revenge of the Sith two times as of the date of this review. The initial viewing was the analog film at 1:30pm showing in Edgewater, NJ on the Thursday May 19th (date of the launch). The second was the digital DLP video at Jersey Garden's Loews Theater in Elizabeth, NJ at 2:45pm on Saturday, May 21st. The differences between both the film and digital versions were night and day. I don't know if it is attributable to the fact that this movie was taped using high definition video at 24fp or because of the inherent advances in DLP cinema, but the fact of the matter is that this movie HAS to be viewed using DLP. There is definitely something lost in the translation when it was transcribed to regular film. Details such as the cameo appearance of the Millenium Falcon as it approaches the Senate Docks and the general melding of the live action and computer generated backgrounds/characters really only came to life in the digital version of the movie. In the film version the clones faces tended to look more "fake" and "stitched together" than in the digital version. Color contrast and fast motion (which this movie has in droves) also suffered under the film translation. Audio for some reason also seemed to have been affected. The film version had muddy audio, and disproportionate audio levels for character dialogue. In contrast, the digital DLP's audio was more nuanced, with John William's score seeming to "meld" more with the action on screen and the tiniest details of the environments shown drew you in with the ambient sound effects just behind your ears. Most dramatic in terms of audio and visual effects differences was in the lightsabers. Saber combat rang more "true" in the digital version with deep bass whines and thrums while again, the audio was muddy and too "merged" in film. The film version suffered from the mish-mash of the bright lights with the viewer not being able to tell where one saber began and the other ended (probably attributable to the problem of handling fast motion in the film version as I mentioned above). The strobe flash of lightsabers clashing was a much more enjoyable experience when viewed in Digital. You actually were able to see how fast and how elaborate the saber combat was. |
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| Like the other prequels before this one, Revenge of the Sith suffers quite a bit from wooden emotional and romantic scenes. I truly doubt this is the fault of the actors involved (some who have received or been nominated for Academy awards and are wonderful actors in non-Lucas vehicles). George Lucas just does not know how to write romantic/emotional dialogue and has equivalent problems in directing those types of scenes. Whether it is the cheesy lines he threw together for Padme and Anakin's balcony scene or the climactic scene on Mustafar when Anakin's fall is completed through force-choking Padme (which I found emotional DESPITE the staid dialogue), GL proves that he has no business writing dramatic dialogue. He should have relied on his friend Stephen Spielberg or Irvin Kershner (who directed The Empire Strikes Back) to help with those scenes. That said, if you "expect" this sort of thing from a Lucas movie, you should still be happy with Episode III. One thing that helped Lucas this time around was lack of dialogue (except for a single burp and "excuse me" about 10 minutes into the film... something the scene could have done without) from Jar Jar Binks. One saving grace in terms of the acting in this movie was Ian McDiarmid's performance. The subtle political dealings have given way to true evil manipulation in his portrayal of the Imperial rise. No matter how bad the dialogue, he brings an air of class to any scene. |
| Visual Effects as always was incredible with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Typifying the state of the art in CGI and visual effects has become the mantra of Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic. The melding of CGI and live action was much less noticeable with this episode, but suffered a bit under the digital-analog translation for the film version (as noted above). Definitely a showcase of DLP based cinema, EPIII's strengths were in the details. More accurate CGI character movement, the number of independent elements on screen (opening Seige of Coruscant which evoked true chaos as intended), and the lightsaber combat scenes were a few examples of what was improved in Revenge of the Sith. |
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| As for the story of Revenge of the Sith... I somewhat cheated in this regard. I read the novelization and the backstage stories a month before EPIII was released. It is the reason I know that George left quite a bit out of the final theatrical cut. Other than the Bai Ling cut I mentioned on this site previously, there were many scenes that really elaborated on the tensions between Anakin, Padme, and Obi Wan and I believe would have made the plot flow in a smoother fashion. Especially disconcerting was the removal of the whole "Beginnings of the Rebellion" subplot that focused on the secret meetings of various senators including Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, Garm bel Iblis, and Padme to discuss Palpatine's unholy rise to power. Other than the links to the Expanded Universe storylines, the subplot would show Padme's growing anxiety about her husband's dealings with Palpatine and her conflict with her feelings. Obi Wan's discussion with Padme after the last "Rebellion" meeting, the night before he left for Utapau, was also removed (though mentioned in dialogue between Padme and Anakin the next morning). This scene I thought essential for exposing Obi Wan's conflicted thoughts about Anakin's behavior. There were also other various scenes removed that would have significantly added to the emotional impact of the main plot and would have made Anakin's fall more poignant. The fact that George Lucas removed these while keeping in scenes of Jar Jar burping shows how disconnected he is from dramatic story telling. Some action scenes involving the rescue of the Chancellor and some dialogue right before Dooku was beheaded were also removed where they should not have. Overall, the story does not suffer fatally from these editing gaffes, but I'm hoping the DVD version expands to an extra half hour or hour so these scenes could be re-integrated (and not just be added to a deleted scenes menu). |
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 I enjoyed Revenge of the Sith despite the structural problems due to overzealous editing and the now traditional Star Wars wooden acting. It's better than most of the other Star Wars films and is a nice close to the film saga. But is it really over? With the Star Wars Expanded Universe books, comics, video games, role playing games, and other story telling forms continuing, and the newly announced Television series (two series: one live action and one animated), the Star Wars phenomena will continue into the forseeable future. I'm hoping the rumors of both Stephen Spielberg and Kevin Smith with the new Live Action series is more than wishful thinking. Both series are supposed to deal with the timeframe between Episode III and Episode IV effectively bridging the gap between the Prequels and the Original Trilogy. |
| The animated series will probably continue Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Series into the Imperial era while the Live Action series will deal with side characters mostly, not Darth Vader nor the newly minted Emperor. Current bets are on Aayla Secura (who seemed to have been layed low, but they say wasn't killed, in EP III) and other exiled Jedi and some interesting Bounty Hunters like Aurra Sing. |
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| Of course you can expect the merchandising to continue as well, with prominent names such as Burger King making deals to tie into the Imperial era TV shows... |
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My current ranking for all the Star Wars Episodes:
1. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
2. Episode IV: A New Hope
3. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
4. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
5. Episode II: Attack of the Clones
6. Episode I: The Phantom Menace
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| I give Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 4/5 deathstars. |
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