Well, it's good....

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2005)

"Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" is possibly the most anticipated movie of the year. And by possibly I mean definitely.
I'm not sure why, though. Episodes I and II were okay, but nothing even approaching "special". I suppose the appeal of the Star Wars movies is that it makes one - anyone - feel like a little child again. It brings you back to the days when you weren't embarrassed to care about what happens to your favorite super-hero, or have long conversations about whether Gandalf would win, or Obi-Wan, in a fight.
These are movies that are just lots of fun.
And Episode III is much, much more fun than I and II, and even a little touching, at times (but just a little). The action seems endless, which is good, because it is like nothing we've ever seen before. The dialogue scenes in I and II that were...for lack of a better word, "harsh", are still harsh, but much shorter, fewer and far between. Thankfully.
The problem with Lucas' writing is that the characters speak in subtext, in feelings. The characters never use any form of wit or subtlety in speaking, they are as blunt as a fist. Though, Ian McDiarmid as the evil Sen. Palpatine has his moments.
The Galaxy is at war. The seemingly "peaceful" Republic with its opponent, the Separatist droid army, led by droid General Grievous, Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and his master, Darth Sidious, whose identity is sort of concealed, even though we all know who he is. The film starts with Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin (Hayden Christensen) rescuing Palpatine from the clutches of Grievous, a half-droid, half-alien soldier whose part in this film is somewhere between window dressing and completely pointless.
So they save Palpatine (or did they?), and Anakin and him grow closer, which is bad, because Palpatine has a few dangerously dark secrets. The rest is too complicated to explain, but the key players are Anakin, Obi-Wan, Anakin's secret pregnant wife Padme (Natalie Portman), Jedi Master Yoda (Frank Oz) and Palpatine.
When I say that the rest is too complicated to explain, I don't mean that it is hard to understand, or anything like that, just that the movie is more about thrills, special effects, battles, and a character study of young Anakin that is surprisingly well-done (Lucas wrote something good! Wow!).
I have one qualm about the special effects, though. The prequel episodes were made a quarter of a century after the originals, so they are far more advanced technically, but does that make sense, to the chronology of the series? Wouldn't the technology in Episodes IV, V and VI be more advanced, because they take place after? I suspect that kids watching these movies a decade from now will be confused.
Anyway, it's not that important. Just lose yourself in the movie, and ignore the dialogue. There are some sequences of pure grandeur, intensity, and excitement, like Palpatine's sickly transformation into the Emperor we all know, a duel on an unstable lava planet, and a duel between two characters who we've all wanted to see in battle for a long time. That we know that neither of these characters dies until three movies later lessens the suspense a little, but it is still exciting.
Others are a little more contrived, like the character of Grievous, and the appearance of everyone's favorite Wookie, Chewbacca. The sole reason for his three seconds of film is so that we can say, "Look, there's everyone's favorite Wookie, Chewbacca!" Oh, and Samuel L. Jackson is completely wasted.
But yeah, the movie is fun. Good, even. Worth seeing once or twice. But nothing to get really worked up over. Just a movie.
7.5/10