We watched the third movie in the Star Wars prequel trilogy last night – Revenge of the Sith.
This is not a review. It’s just my thoughts after watching this movie for the first time since it was released in theaters in 2005. This isn’t meant to rain on anybody’s love for this movie – it’s an attempt to articulate my own feelings about it. Your mileage may most definitely vary.
I know I must have gone to the theater to see Revenge of the Sith, but I honestly don’t remember anything about it (unlike the first two movies in the prequel trilogy). So, essentially, last night I was watching it for the first time.
The plot of Revenge of the Sith was actually a little tighter than the first two movies, so that was a plus in its favor. It still had its share of clunky, stilted dialogue and wooden acting, but certainly not as much as in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.
Warning! Spoilers Below (if there can be such a thing as spoilers for a movie released in 2005).
What I Liked
Worldbuilding. I think I enjoyed the “worldbuilding” scenes the most. You know the ones I mean – the pulled back, wide angle shots of a (new) world showing the vastness and diversity of the Galaxy. I would have happily watched a (much shorter) movie that was just a series of scenes of ships arriving/landing on different worlds (kind of like the PBS shows that are aerial shots of beautiful scenery). Now that would have been entertaining!
Obi-Wan (mostly). I liked his attempts at bantering with his sullen apprentice. And, he must have known about Anakin and Padmé’s relationship (how could he not?), which means he must have turned a blind eye to it. Why? Is it too much to hope that he thought the relationship would steady Anakin?
What I Was Ambivalent About
Anakin Murdering Children. Yes, I understand why Lucas made this decision. BUT – it was poorly set up. The movie focused so much on “worldbuilding” shots and battle scenes, that we didn’t get the kind of deep-dive into Anakin’s character that I think we needed in order to buy that, (1) he’d just immediately turn his back on the Jedi Council (why? because they didn’t immediately bow down and make him a “Master”?) to become Palpatine’s apprentice, and (2) even with that, that he’d willingly – and without remorse – slaughter innocent children. (And let’s consider how this retcons Vader’s ultimate “redemption” in Return of the Jedi. There can be no redemption for this act; only atonement. And that means Anakin still has a lot of atoning to do.)
We’re told that he’s been keeping company with Palpatine, including taking his advice on stuff, but we aren’t shown it – or how that affects his relationship with Padmé (because she doesn’t seem to be a big Palpatine fan and that can’t have just come out of nowhere). This really felt unearned to me.
What I Disliked
Jedi Council. What can I say? They’re still smug, arrogant assholes. And Yoda’s statement at the end of the movie that he’s failed and will go into exile? Not, “I’ve failed and I will retreat to rally others to our cause and fight this.” Talk about just giving up. Well, that was a cowardly – and selfish – response.
Then there was the Jedi response to the Clone Army. Sure, they showed up and saved the day at the end of Attack of the Clones, but why didn’t the Jedi Council investigate further into who really had the army created and how they were “conditioned?” If they had, perhaps they would have uncovered the whole “Order 66” thing and negated it. Instead, they seemed to have turned a blind eye and didn’t stop to question their “good fortune.” For a group that’s supposed to be so wise, it wasn’t a very smart thing to do.
The Clone Army. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the clones per se. I’m just disappointed that mostly we saw them as cannon fodder (much like the Orcs in LoTR). They are essentially human beings, right? Despite how they were created? So, what’s the Republic’s attitude toward clones? Are they considered “less than human?” Property? Slaves? You know, there were some really repulsive things about the Republic.
Anakin and Padmé. I still didn’t buy their relationship. What the hell did she see in him? Their relationship should have been central to his character arc (especially since his turning to the Dark Side was supposedly out of his fear that she was going to die in childbirth). We should have had more scenes showing their growing rift and his fear, instead we got more lightsaber battles and scenes of war.
Anakin. Still a whiny, self-centered, sullen adolescent (“I deserve...”). Actually, I’m surprised it took him as long as it did to turn to the Dark Side, because he was a selfish jerk pretty much from the get-go. I didn’t buy his fear of Padmé dying being what drove him (seemingly willy-nilly) to switch allegiances. I would have loved to really be shown his inner conflict in a way I could believe, and it just didn’t happen. If it had happened, I would have found Anakin to be a tragic figure instead of the truly weak individual he was.
Obi-Wan and the Duel on Mustafar. I didn’t buy that Obi-Wan would simply walk away from Anakin on Mustafar like he did at the end of their duel. He would have delivered the coup de grâce and ended Anakin’s pain and suffering. What Obi-Wan did was not the act of a supposed friend and brother. What it really was, was a heavy handed plot device to set up Anakin’s final transformation into Darth Vader.
Conclusion
For all of my dislikes, Revenge of the Sith wasn’t horrible. It was, in fact, better than the first two movies of the prequel trilogy (which I know isn’t saying much). I did, however, find it tedious to watch. If I was watching it for a different reason, I would have turned it off somewhere around 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into the movie out of sheer boredom.
The best I can say for it is that (1) the worldbuilding shots are incredible, and (2) it has a lot of information that explains things in later movies (but I have to say, once you have that information there’s no reason to ever watch this movie – or the other prequel movies – again).
