Movie - Star Wars III - revenge of the sith
Full title adds "episode II"
Score : 6/10 Year : 2005Director: George LucasCinematography: David TattersallMusic: John William Country: USA Language: English Duration: 2h20Writers: George Lucas
Full cast & team (IMDB)
The third and last prequel happens to be the best of them, though remains an under achieved project. It completes a cycle and prepares the terrain for the original trilogy's storyline with the arrival of several key characters and plotlines that had been discussed in the original movies, now shown and explained.
The previous movie ended with the Clone Wars - further explored in an animated movie and tv show for the full tale of the years 22 to 19 BBY, which is the time-lapse between chapters II & III. It opposes the Republic and Jedi to the Count and Separatists, and now, in the year 19 BBY, new threats arise. The Jedi Councils sends aid to rescue the Chancellor, also having to pursue a General in the process, and to safeguard important persons' in the face of danger and destruction.
We finally meet the rise of the villains that the original trilogy had portrayed, with final steps in backstories and motivations. We get that emotional context that was so lacking in both previous prequels, from almost everyone, but one key character is still a mess : Padmé. Indeed, she is shocked at some actions NOW, but when similar ones were expressed in the prior chapter, she seemed un-phased, or actually ok with them, which makes absolutely no sense.
She's sadly now the sole woman with dialogues, and it took 24 minutes to even see the first woman on-screen, and another minute before Padmé got to speak. Her scenes are far dispersed and dialogues and role have been so reduced, that she's now a non-person, with only roles that stereotypical writing of women by men who don't understand them can provide : that of waiting for their man, that of being in a relationship with the man, etc.
A couple more negative comments, before I discuss more positives : just like a few stupid names in chapter II, this one adds General Grievous as a stupid and evidently evil name...
The humor attempts continue to fail in this 3rd chapter.
Now, to mixed and more positive aspects :
There are bigger parts to Jimmy Smits and Samuel L. Jackson, so despite the lack of diversity, this is very partially mitigated by their increased dialogues and screen-time.
Music was good, better than both chapters I and II, insomuch it doesn't become silly, and though it doesn't shine, it's at least consistent and to the point - and also ties back into the original trilogy's leitmotivs.
We didn't have to wait too long for light saber fights, and their choreographies and styles were interesting, well executed for the majority - with a couple cartoonish moments but nothing as silly as the two previous installments.
Pacing, cinematography and light were all so much improved in this final prequel, we are back to more Star Wars pure content, despite a couple nods to other movies. At least, this time around, there are no lengthy scenes borrowed from 5 or more other films!
More entertaining, better balance between dialogues and action, Revenge of the Sith is therefore the best of the prequel trilogy. But, much like chapters I and II, and the original trilogy of IV-VI, there are some gender and diversity screen time and dialogue balance issues, that are more forgiven for the initial films from 1977-83, they are sadly inexcusable 15-20 years later. I am so glad that Lucas sold the rights to Disney, who did an amazing job in making the effort to bridge those gaps in chapters VII onwards.
Cast : Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, et al.
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