Flawed, but excellent

Rating: 8/10 (14 June 2005)

First of all, I'd like to say that I don't consider myself to be a huge fan of the Star Wars movies, but I can see their appeal. Thanks to "Revenge Of The Sith" I'm a born-again Star Wars fan. Seeing the third installment of the infamous saga made me want to go home and watch the 4th, 5th and 6th episodes again. There's a lot to like in this film, which is definitely the strongest of the prequels.
When I rate a film I give it a mark for impact. In other words, whether it moved me, made me laugh, cry, scared or whether I just had great fun. Once I give it that mark I deduct a point for each fairly substantial flaw I notice in the film. Episode III would get 10/10 for impact because it really moved me. The plight of the characters, the tragedy of Anakin's turning and Padme's destiny and that of the Jedi as a whole was quite heart-wrenching, particularly the way in which Anakin becomes the Darth Vadar we grew to fear in the original trilogy. It is melodramatic, disturbing and brilliant.
Some of the criticisms I hear about ROTS is it's use of CGI. I, personally, think that it's a revolution in film and adds considerable depth and more definition to characters. One of the most poignant moments in the film (NB SPOILER) is where the Jedi are being turned on simultaneously by the people they were initially fighting alongside. We get various images of Jedi being killed in different places. It is a massacre. Cut to a scene of Yoda standing on a platform in the land of the Wookies with a look of sadness and disconsolation on his face holding his heart. He senses that something is wrong. I challenge anyone to find a better use for CGI in that moment. The "Muppet Yoda" in the original trilogy wouldn't have been able to show such emotion and have such an impact an his audience as the "CGI Yoda".
The performances are, for the most part, pretty good. The greatest turn coming from Ewan McGregor. He carries himself with a lot of dignity in this film, much like Alec Guinness did in Episode IV. You really believe that Ewan's Obi-wan becomes the older, wiser Obi-Wan that Sir Alec portrays in the original film. Hayden Christiansen is, actually, quite good as the good-turned-bad Anakin. I felt his performance was unbelievably bad in Episode II. He seemed to portray Anakin Skywalker (the future Darth Vadar) as a whinny, spoiled brat ("It's not fair!") etc. etc. It made me think "God. Is THIS film's most feared villain?". In Episode III, however, he is much better, creating an Anakin Skywalker that we actually believe becomes Darth Vadar. There's an evil in his eyes that few actors are able to pull off, which Hayden does.
The Star Wars score is probably the greatest film score ever written. So many themes, so much excitement, so much genius. Ask anyone to hum the main theme, or Darth Vadar's theme, or Luke's theme, or Leia's and, most of the time, they will. The score for Episode III uses the best bits of all 5 other films in the saga as well as some stunning new material (Anakin's Betrayal, Anakin's Dark Deeds, Padme's destiny and Battle Of The Heroes, the new "Duel Of The Fates") It is truly like a "greatest hits" of the Star Wars trilogy. In my opinion, without the music the Star Wars saga wouldn't be anywhere near as famous as it is today.
Now to the flaws. The dialogue, particularly between Anakin and Padme, is still terrible. It seems static and strained and not at all flowing or intelligent. It's just like two 7 year-olds quoting love poetry to each other. It's also a bit of a let-down from the slam-dunk special effects and highly-charged emotion of the rest of the film. Another flaw is in the story-telling. While George Lucas does link the two trilogies together very well, it seems he went off on too much of a tangent in the first two episodes and that he set himself too hard a task in Episode III to tie up all those loose ends. There's too much rush in the first hour, quick cutting between scenes, scenes of really unnecessary dialogue that seem to only lost for a half a minute.....This is just a personal opinion. (Who am I to give pointers to a man who's the brains behind, possibly, THE biggest movie franchise in history) So, basically, deduct 1 point for the bad dialogue and 1 point for the plot holes and goofs in continuity and I give this 8/10. I do wish it could have been 10 though.