Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Oh Yes, the thing you've all been waiting for my friends!!!

Once again I must remind you, I am reviewing the film, so there will probably be many spoilers within.

I write this review in the most convenient place, my conservatory, which as the fridge thermometer reads is over 30 degrees Celsius (the highest it reads), so the review may not be my best, also considering that I am wanting to review about another 5 or 6 films, which I saw a week ago at the very least.

We all know the story to Star Wars; or at least I hope we do.
Needless to say I’m a big fan, with a modest collection of the figures, the idea for a fan film in the works, as well as my interest in SWG peaking once again. I had built ‘high’ hopes for the last film to be able to contend with the likes of the old trilogy, as I believe did everyone else.

Starring Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen and Ian McDiarmid as well as various other actors, all of course appearing previously in the last two films, I could not see the film getting much better though. With George Lucas’ fascination with special effects I am always a little pissed at, I mean animatronics are a hell of a lot better looking than stupid CGI, anyway I’m getting off track.

The film follows the final days of Anakin Skywalker, showing his transformation to Darth Vader, and as long as you have seen the original trilogy there was little surprise to be had with the newest and final instalment of the historic saga. It was merely filling in a few important gaps. So on with my opinion of the film...

So the film starts with a chase through space; following Obi Wan and Anakin dodging left and right to rescue the precious Chancellor Palpatine. The chase contains much cold, emotionless dialogue being thrown back and forth between the two.

The whole scene disheartened me to the premise of the film as it all seemed very mechanical, with much over usage of CGI, although upon arrival inside the ship they were destined to, it did seem to get better with some humorous antics of R2-D2, who must have forgotten how useful he was later on in life during the old trilogy. And some battle droids, which some would argue are too emotive for droids, but hey, it's a fictional film, no one complains about the Aqualish or the Sullstans being unbelievable.

This all leads to one of the first kills on Anakin’s tally, the decapitation of Darth Tyranus (Christopher Lee) which was much unexpected; although in Episode IV you see a removed limb, so the violence isn’t really that bad.
They escape, lots of jumping, running, flying away, crashing into the landing zone etc, ACTION ACTION ACTION. They land at Coruscant, Anakin and Padme have words. She’s pregnant!! Loads of emotion is used in this scene.... I am joking of course... not to mention throughout the whole film Natalie Portman looked a little funny to me, not ha-ha funny.

Now the details of the middle of the film are a little scant. I do however remember lightsaber battles taking waay too long. Much to the joy of the guy sitting next to me (very annoying) when Yoda got his lightsaber out he felt the need to clap...
I thought Kashyyyk was done nicely, looked exactly like Battlefront, although not too much like the Kashyyyk that KOTOR presented me. Although this did not stop that all the while the whole film made me want to play KOTOR, so there was obviously some element in the film which reminded me of the brilliant game.

Now, now Ian McDiarmid… one person who I also knows agrees with this opinion, is he was overacting a little too much... or maybe it was that he was the only person really acting he seemed a little over the top. He executed all of his lines a little too slowly, and made too many growling-like noises when battling Yoda and Mace Windu.
Although I did like the involvement of the mention of previous Sith lords, as mentioned by Emperor Palpatine or Darth Sidious...

The introduction of General Grevious was new to me. I had not seen any of the Clone Wars, bar an episode that I was sent. It was never shown on Terrestrial TV so I never had to the chance to.
Off topic, I had heard the part was to be given to Gary Oldman, but he decided not to, for reasons I do not remember. But I liked the character none-the-less, although he was a little hard to understand. And thinking about it right now, he probably would have looked a hell of a lot scarier/overwhelming if he were made using animatronics, rather that CGI.

I know that much has been said about the political undertones present in ROTS, but they’ve always been there in the Star Wars films, it's nothing new, hell the line that Padme says of ‘who is the real enemy, how do we know if we are not oppressors’ (I don’t remember the exact lines) That is something I always think in my head when watching a film, or playing a game. The idea of the majesty when one person believes they are acting out for the just cause, when that is the exact opposite that the opposition feel about them. I seem to be blabbing, must be this heat.

I must say my favourite part of the film overall was the eradication of the Jedi, as morbid as the sentence sounds, I found it the best because it is something I would expect of Star Wars, especially from what I saw in KOTOR, the oppression the Empire brought down, as well as the racial tendencies of the Republic. I loved every minute of the execution of the Jedi, but as you can probably see for reasons unexplained. I am unable to express it in words myself.

As you probably guess from most of this review I hold much vehemence towards the overuse of CGI in the film, I wouldn't’ get so annoyed with it, but George Lucas had shown in the three older films that he could create a good looking universe full of strange looking aliens and spacecraft, and he never did this using top of the range CGI, meh.
I also must show my displeasure for the rather unimpressive dialogue and acting. Every word the actors uttered seemed too flat and empty; there was hardly ever any expression in Hayden’s voice. I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the conversations because they seemed too unbelievable that what they were saying they actually meant in context with the film.

The music was as always top notch, a good bit of John Williams always makes the story seem better, especially with the use of Binary Sunset at the end of the film (someone please correct me if I have gotten the name incorrect) I must say even with the cheesiness of the end it was great, bittersweet and felt like the end of something.

So I must say although there was much against the film it was still a Star Wars film, which I can unfortunately say I cannot give too much bad word against. Considering that it was much better than Episodes 1 & 2 with a nice end and some nice bits in between....

Cptalbertwesker Rating 6-1/2/10*
*I’d give it a 7 but the acting is really bad :( Considering that my average score for a film is 8, 6 is not as bad as it seems.

So what awaits the fans now, with not much prospect should we hang on to the good old films?
According to George Lucas he was done with Star Wars after ROTS, but now he speaks of Television series; and possibly more films, that is of course once he’s done with Indiana Jones IV *sigh*

Unless there are some good actors, comparable to Harrison Ford, who are willing to sign up to a Hollywood movie, there is little hope for another great star wars film.