Movie Reviews

Okay, I think it's safe to say that Revenge of the Sith makes up for the crappiness of the last two Star Wars prequels. It's not without some faults and annoyances, but it turns out to be quite an effective sci-fi movie with lots of drama, incredible special effects, and -- surprise, surprise -- an engaging story.

We all know what's supposed to happen in the 'filler' episode that Sith essentially is. We know what's come before it from the previous two films, and we know what it's obliged to set up and lead into from the original l978 film. What is impressive is the flair, energy, and drama with which it accomplishes this.

There are some really incredible action sequences here, my favourite of which is a showdown between the Jedi and a really cool new villain, the robotic General Grievous. If there's one thing I can definitely give credit to George Lucas for, it's his imagination when it comes to creating new alien species and new weapons for them to kick the crap out of each other with.

And if there's one thing that Lucas certainly doesn't deserve any accolades for, it's his dialogue. It's clunkier than that trash-can droid in the original Star Wars. The wooden acting by most of the cast doesn't help much either. Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ian McDiarmid as Chancellor Palpatine are quite good in their roles, though.

What saves Revenge of the Sith from the mediocrity of the last two prequels, I believe, is it's very dark tone. The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones took themselves far too seriously for the sort of films that they were. Sith, however, is a very dark and serious tale, and unlike in the previous prequels, I didn't find myself wishing for the silliness and light-heartedness of the original trilogy; it simply wouldn't have worked in a film as heavy as this one.

So aside from the problems I've mentioned here, and a few others (Anakin's transition to the Dark Side occurs perhaps just a bit too quickly, and there's a horribly-cheesy fist-raised "NOOOOO!" by Darth Vader at the end of the film), I really enjoyed this movie.

I've written in the past about how the original trilogy -- while groundbreaking at the time and still fun to watch -- never really struck me as great movies. Having said that, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Revenge of the Sith is probably my favourite of all of the Star Wars films.