Rounding out the incredible epic

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2005)

So many obstacles and such enormous, HUGE fans to live up to. Lucas had an overpowering amount of obstacles to overcome. But in his favor he took the criticism and just continued on with his dream for the greatest science fiction epic and overall...all six films...he accomplished that and so much more. Episode III finishes off his epic and connects the old with the new. After the disastrous (my opinion) Episode II I didn't think the third installment would rectify the situation any. I had chocked the deplorable performance of Hayden Christenson in Episode II to his bad acting and criticized Lucas for casting such an important role to such a poor actor. I formally retract that statement. Apparently I should blame Lucas for Episode II because Christenson redeems himself for Revenge of The Sith.
Revenge of The Sith picks up in the heat of the Clone War. Chancellor Palpatine has been kidnapped by Count Dooku and the separatist army and they are trying to take him away from the capital. Jedi Knights Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are successful in rescuing him and returning him to safety. The Jedi council finds themselves in a power struggle with with Palpatine when he attempts to take power away from them. Palpatine convinces Skywalker that the council is trying to hold him back from being a master, and Palpatine uses Anakin's fear of losing his wife Padme who is pregnant with his child (children as we find out.) Palpatine shows Anakin that he is indeed a powerful user of the Dark Side of the force and Anakin is tricked into turning against the Jedi Council. Palpatine puts his plan into action and uses his troops to systematically wipe out the Jedi and attack the Jedi temple. He also uses Anakin to help wipe them out. When Obi Wan discovers Skywalker's turn to the dark side he tracks him down and fights him to the death. He leaves Anakin for dead but Palpatine, who is none other than Darth Sidious will turn Anakin into the most evil of all Sith Lords, Darth Vader.
Nothing is left to small potatoes in this film. Each important event is treated with the most explosive, emotional and drastic moments. Mace Windu's death, the birth of the Twins Luke and Leia, Skywalker's transformation, Padme's death...everything is done with the perfect amount of attention. There are some major plot moving, epic moments in this film and some of them should have been utilized in Episode II in order to save it from boring monotony but they didn't. Instead Lucas held them all for Episode III making it perhaps one of the best of the entire series which is quite an accomplishment to have one of the best be the last in a six part series. Hayden Christensen redeems his awful performance as Anakin in Episode II and shows us a very emotionally torn, confused Jedi who is tempted to the dark side with his fear and emotions. He plays an amazing bad guy and we actually feel him becoming Vader who truly is one of the greatest film bad guys ever. I didn't think he could pull that off and he did!! Ewen McGregor continues to impress as young Obi Wan. You can actually picture him becoming Alec Guinness' Obi Wan of later films, also quite a feat. You just can't help, after growing up with the original films feel completely fulfilled seeing these characters live out their past. It's like reliving history that you were only familiar with by legend in the original films. Natalie Portman is sufficient as Amidala but hasn't really captured what she was in Episode I. She was so passionate and such an interesting strong character and yet gradually she seemed to fade out in the other Episodes. I do think Portman is a great actress but somehow she lost her character throughout the films. It is also an amazing accomplishment for Lucas to create such amazing characters that we relate to that don't exist...I mean of course Master Yoda voiced by Frank Oz and those irreplaceable droids R2-D2 and C3P0...more R2 for this film. R2 plays such an integral role in this film and you just feel so connected to this character that is more of a puppet than anything. I have to give that credit to Lucas. There were some downsides in my mind that kept this from being a perfect film. First off I did find some of the dialog and acting campy at times. Perhaps this was meant to be but with such an epic scale film series campiness doesn't fit in. And I have to say, although it goes with the times that CGI was an unnecessary addition. Knowing that they pulled off the first three amazing films with no CGI makes you realize how much they use. Granted it's used a little better than some films but it's still there and often ruins the feel of the film. Yoda was so digitally done that it was distracting in my opinion. I also must say I was not a fan of the lava planet. It seemed tacked on in order to create a "cool looking" final battle. I would have also liked to have seen more of a return to some familiar locations like tattooine but this film moved at a very fast pace and rarely took a breather. Overall this was the perfect wrap up to an amazing series. All of them are necessary to each other but it's also nice when they are a great movie. I don't know if Episode III stands the test of classic film like the originals but I know I loved seeing it. 8.5/10