Star Wars Retrospective: Episode 3

I think I'm coming down with something, because I've been dizzy as shit all day.  But I'm going to continue on with reposting my old livejournal retrospective with Episode 3.

Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith.  It all came down to the wire on this one, but, to use a baseball metaphor, George Lucas had two strikes and then hit a home run.  This movie was good.

First off, the action.  I believe this is the only movie that you actually start out with a battle.  The movie starts out with a space battle, to get to General Grevious' flagship so they can rescue the chancellor.  A few minutes later, we get a lightsaber battle, and then a skirmish with droids, and then a crash landing.  What a way to start your movie.  None of the other live action movies start out this way.  Episode 4 comes close, with Vader chasing the Tantative 4, but it's not a full scale war.

Second, the romance dialogue is far better, and it proves why George Lucas should not be writing dialogue.  Yeah, some of it is cheesy as hell, but is sounds natural.  I've actually heard people stuff similar to the "Only because I'm so in love" conversation.  Cheesy as hell, but it works.

Ian McDiarmid was awesome as Palpatine, as well.  The subtle way he forces Anakin to doubt the Jedi was just too delicious.  Palpatine knew that Anakin was finally ready to accept that Palpatine was Dark Lord of the Sith, and willing to accept his teachings.  And Palpatine knew he had Anakin by the balls, especially after Anakin told him about his dreams of Padme, and what the Jedi Council told him to do.

And seeing the Darth Vader costume and hearing James Earl Jones' voice again, that was almost orgasmic.  Granted, Jones' lines sucked balls and sounded completely out of character from what we see in the next three films, but I see that moment as the "death" of Anakin Skywalker, and the "birth" of Darth Vader.

And that final climactic between Obi-wan and Anakin was too cool for words.  You can see the emotion in their eyes, feel the pain in their hearts as they try to kill each other.  Despite what Anakin says, he still loves Obi-Wan like a father.  He's angry, confused, and he directs that all at Obi-Wan.  Not to mention that he blames Obi-Wan for what he "had to do" to his wife, the one person who loved him no matter what he did.

And Obi-Wan is confused as well.  Obi-Wan loved Anakin.  He even says as much.
"You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!"

To see the man that Obi-Wan had trained since he was 9 like that, it broke Obi-Wan's heart.  The fact that he couldn't stand the sight of Anakin engulfed by flames, and the line I quoted, showed how much it hurt Obi-Wan to have to do this.  And even though he should have, Obi-Wan could not kill his friend.  He couldn't bear the thought of taking his life.

And that battle adds new dimensions to the battle aboard the Death Star, nearly 20 years later.  But, I'll get into that when I review Episode 4.

The only downsides to this movie were nitpicky.  First off, any time Yoda is forced to use his lightsaber, while incredibly cool to see Yoda's sword skills, looks incredibly cheesy seeing him duel another Force user.

Padme's role is greatly diminished in this film, but her time to shine was over.  Yeah, she was a member of the Delegation of 2000, and while those scenes cut from the movie are canon, the only major event she had to do was give birth to Luke and Leia.  And that's fine.    This was the story of Anakin's fall, and Padme had to be pushed aside to tell that story.

Besides, she gives birth to A New Hope, so she still plays an extremely important role in the story.

The only other nitpicky thing I have is the sense of time.  I mean, how long does it take to make hyperspace journeys?  Padme said she hadn't seen Anakin since yesterday when she was told, by Obi-Wan, what Anakin did in the Jedi Temple, which implied to me that Mustafar was a day's travel from Coruscant.  The next scene, Padme shows up on Mustafar just as Anakin finishes talking to Palpatine.  And then Palpatine shows up right after the battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan ends!!!  WTF?!?!

All in all, this is how the two prior should have been made.  This movie was higher quality than we had seen from George Lucas in a long time, and redeemed him in the eyes of many fans.  And then he had to go and create the Clone Wars movie and cartoon, but I digress.

Next review; Episode 4: A New Hope.

Episode 4 will be up at some point tomorrow. When and how much I saw will be determined by how I'm feeling.