Movie Review: Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Entertaining action, Ewan McGregor's acting

Cons: Pointless story, Natalie Portman's overacting

The Bottom Line:

Story is pointless

But the action entertains

Still mediocre

"Only the Sith Deal in Absolutes."

Until this last weekend, I had only seen Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith once, and that was when it was in the theaters in 2005.  At the time, I pretty much hated it.  Watching it again did prove it wasn't the worst of the prequel trilogy, but it still isn't a good movie.

The civil war in the galaxy long ago and far, far away is raging.  Supreme chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) has been kidnapped, and Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) are hot in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Padme (Natalie Portman) has news of her own.  She is pregnant.  At first, Anakin is thrilled.  But then he starts to have nightmares of Padme dying in childbirth.  Can he find a way to save her?  Will he be influenced by his close association with Palpatine?

My number one complaint about this movie hasn't changed.  If you've seen the other Star Wars movies (the ones now called Episodes IV-VI), you already know how this movie will end.  The set up for all this takes about 20 minutes.  So basically you are then watching events unfold very predictably for the next two hours.  The first time around, I felt like it had been a big waste of my time.  Since I went into it expecting not much to happen, I was able to accept that much easier this time around.  Instead, I was able to enjoy the little nods to the other movies or the action sequences.

And the action sequences are pretty good.  There are some great lightsaber duals and the fights at the beginning will get your blood pumping.  Many of these scenes require some great special effects, and those effects are outstanding here.  Gone are the dated effects I complained about in Episode I.  Granted, they are only five years old, but they really hold up.

The writing and acting seem to have improved here.  There are still some cheesy lines, but they aren't nearly as bad as they were in Episode II.  And there aren't whole scenes that make you cringe.

Hayden Christensen's acting was a huge issue in Episode II.  I'm quite happy to say it's improved dramatically for this movie.  Yes, he can still over act, but that is kept mostly in check.  He's not so whiney here, even when he is whining.  Unfortunately, Natalie Portman's acting has slidden to make up for it.  Granted, she gets the lion's share of the poor dialogue and scenes that are mostly superfluous to the politically driven plot, but she still doesn't live up to the part.  This is especially noticeable near the end as her character goes into meltdown.

But I am reserving specially praise for Ewan McGregor who does an excellent job of channeling Alec Guinness.  His accent and mannerisms seem to slip at times, but there are others when you can see the character of Obi-Wan as he would appear in the later films.

This is definitely the darkest of the Star Wars movies, and the only one to be rated PG-13.  There are many deaths, including some children.  And the ending leaves things pretty depressing.  Fortunately, we do know that there is more to the story, so don't stop here.  While most of these films are fine for kids, parents may want to think about how their kids will react to the violence before they let them watch it.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith isn't quite as bad as I remember it being.  But it still doesn't close the prequel trilogy out on a high note.  In fact, I still maintain that we don't need these movies.  While they don't harm the original trilogy, they don't really add much to the great Star Wars legacy.