Wicked!

Rating: 9/10 (31 May 2005)

***Seriously, LOTS of spoilers, so proceed with caution!*** Revenge of the Sith is so good, I hardly have words to describe it. My wife, who is not a particular fan of the series, came out of the theater asking, "Where did all that good acting come from?" It is a legitimate question after Jake Lloyd's wooden acting and Jar-Jar's entire "performance" in Ep. I, and the absolutely wretched romance scenes in Ep. II. Here, you care about the characters. You feel Anakin's ambivalence, Obi-Wan's anguish, Padme's sadness, Mace Windu's righteous anger, even the Emporer's lust for power.
Even moreso, you feel for the characters because of how they interact so believably with the other characters. Anakin must choose between the Emporer and Obi-Wan for his master. Obi-Wan must choose between loyalty to Yoda/the Jedi Order, and loyalty to his protégé. Padme is torn between love for her husband and her trust in Obi-Wan. And behind it all, the Emporer is manipulating Jedi against Sith, Clone Army against Separatists, and the need for peace and security against power and dictatorship.
And the action! The initial space battle is excellent, but it overwhelms the senses. Extremely satisfying, though, are the lightsaber duels, starting with a re-match of Obi-Wan & Anakin vs. Count Dooku, ending in Christopher Lee's digitally-placed head separated from his stunt-man body. I particularly liked the fight between Obi-Wan and General Grievous, especially its start as Grievous lights up, count 'em, FOUR lightsabers! And of course the final fights, Obi-Wan vs. Anakin, and Yoda vs. the Emporer are not just thrilling, but amazingly epic in their scope and execution.
And, oh, the tragedy! To see Yoda literally crawl away on all fours in defeat; tears rolling down Obi-Wan's cheeks as he stands "victorious"; Padme's funeral procession; Darth Vader dismembered and burned; twin babies born to lives as orphans -- gut-wrenchingly effective.
Then there are all the fine, little touches to satisfy the hard-core Star Wars geek that I am because of all the cool bridges Lucas creates from this movie to the one he released way back in 1977. Where to begin? Yoda tells Obi-Wan that Darth Vader has consumed Anakin, setting the stage for Obi-Wan later telling Luke that Vader killed Luke's father. The Senator from Alderaan flies around in the SAME SHIP that we first see Princess Leia fleeing in with the stolen technical details of the Death Star. Yoda tells Obi-Wan that his old mentor, Qui-Gon, has discovered the "secret of immortality," setting up Obi-Wan telling Darth Vader in the 1977 movie that "If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine." C-3PO gets his memory wiped, and R2-D2 doesn't! (That one's just TOO funny.) Now for my small quibbles, because I have never seen a movie I thought was completely perfect. I heard somewhere that, a couple years back, Samuel L. Jackson begged George Lucas not to script his character dying in some wimpy way. George rewarded him by making Mace Windu's death the entire movie's, arguably the whole six-episode series', turning point. Natalie Portman, apparently, did not similarly beg. Padme's death is not only pointless, it took me out of the movie. Also, it feels incongruous to me to see Darth Vader, IN the suit, and hear him ask about Padme, like he cares. It makes sense, yes, but it just does not feel right to me.
I would have named the movie, "The Fall of the Jedi." Because "Jedi" can be singular or plural, that name would have referred both to Anakin's personal story and to the destruction of the entire Jedi order. The movie isn't about the Sith seeking revenge at all -- it's about them seeking power. However, I guess if you wanted the word "Sith" in your title, it wouldn't sound cinematic to call it, "The Power Grab of the Sith." Anyway, whatever its name, it was excellent. I am torn between giving it an A-, which would tie it with Return of the Jedi, and an A, which would tie it with Empire Strikes Back in my personal movie grading database. By way of comparison, I gave an A+ only to A New Hope, my all time favorite, and I gave a B to both Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Finally as of today, May 31, I have seen Revenge in the theater twice; I believe it speaks well for it that I'd like to see it at least once more on the big screen.