Certainly Better than the Last Two but Still Flawed

Rating: 6/10 (18 August 2013)

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is usually the film that people describe as being the only good Star Wars prequel out there. One of the most used words to describe this film is dark. People often call it the darkest film of the entire Star Wars saga, but is it a good movie outside of being dark? Let's find out!
Firstly, the story. The story here is a lot more engaging than the previous two films. It lacks the boring, politics-based plot of The Phantom Menace and the cliché romance of Attack of the Clones. Here, the story is dark, intriguing, and quite tragic. Anakin goes through a lot of sh!t in this movie. He has visions of Padme dying in childbirth, the Jedi Council won't grant him master, and he learns that the only way to prevent Padme's death is by learning the Dark Side of the Force. He gets manipulated by Chancellor Palpatine overtime and ends up joining the Dark Side.
What's interesting about his fall is that it isn't nearly as simple as the way Obi-Wan described it in A New Hope. He doesn't just " get seduced by the Dark Side ". Okay, he kinda does but the reason he joins the Dark Side is because of love. He ultimately loved Padme too much and couldn't deal with loss. That's what the entire prequel trilogy has been building on, Anakin always had things be unfair for him. He left his mother at a young age and when he came back, he saw her die right in front of him. He fell in love when that was not allowed for a Jedi, he was not appreciated at the Jedi Council, and Padme was gonna die in her childbirth. He couldn't deal with loss so he ended up joining the Dark Side hoping to fix this issue. But ultimately, he was seduced with the power of the Dark Side and destroyed the thing he cared about the most, Padme. It's wonderfully Shakespearean and this alone makes the movie worth watching.
Unlike most people, I think the acting in this movie is pretty good. Hayden Christensen is a lot less whiny and b!tchy than he was in Attack of the Clones and he expresses the pain of his character well. Ewan McGregor does a good job again emulating the voice of what Alec Guinness's Obi-Wan might have sounded like in his younger years. He plays Obi with a sense of maturity but you can still tell he's young in this film because he does have a sense of humor here and is generally looser than the older Obi. The showstealer here is Ian McDirmid. He's wonderfully over-the-top and creepy in this movie! I think he gives his strongest performance in the entire Star Wars saga. The one performance I didn't like is Natalie Portman. She's really fwcking annoying in this film with her high-pitched voice and melodramatic dialogue.
The action is extremely quick-paced here and it's a lot of fun! I especially like the opening rescue of Chancellor Palpatine. It feels really adventurous and Saturday morning cartoon like, it's great!
John Williams'score is amazing as usual. It makes the film feel really epic, tragic, and exciting. He also uses some music from the original Star Wars trilogy here which makes the two trilogies here feel more connected with each other.
The visual effects are probably the best of what 2005 had to offer. They look super clean and detailed in this movie, it looks almost HD! Even watching this movie on DVD, you still get an amazing visual experience!
So I actually like this movie but there are some things about it that bother me. I don't buy Padme dies because she lost the will to live. Really? She doesn't even care about the kids? I think the shooting and editing of this film is quite bland. Every single dialogue scene in this movie is shot with nothing but shoulder to shoulder shots! The editing is just basic shot reverse shot the entire time! To quote RedLetterMedia, it feels like it's edited and shot by a computer! Some of the dialogue is also pretty bad. They feel kinda soap-operaish and melodramatic at times and it doesn't help that it's delivered by Padme.
Overall though, I like the drama, the action, the acting for the most part, the visuals, and the score so I'll give it a 7/10.