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Back Shelf Beauties
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Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith You always want to go out with a bang, leaving the audience wanting more, and George Lucas has done exactly that. Fans like me had plenty of complaints over the years, but Lucas was listening and delivered the movie we wanted. Gone are The Ewoks, Jar Jar Binks, The Trade Federation, scenes designed to be converted into video games and a multitude of odd characters created to become toys. What's left makes Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith the greatest Star Wars movie EVER, and the film fans have been waiting for since Lucas raised our hopes and expectations with the simple statement that he would be making three more films. The only disappointment - Natalie Portman does not wear the Princess Leia gold bikini. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith begins with the proclamation of, "War!" The mysterious Sith, led by a secretive Darth Sidious and his minions, including Jedi killer General Grevious and the evil apprentice Count Dooku, have been attacking the Republic with their droid army throughout the solar system. Now, the Sith have "kidnapped" the leader of the Republic, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). General Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his impetuous, but talented student, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christiansen), rescue Palpatine but even this brave, inspiring act is not enough to bridge the ever widening gap between the Chancellor and the Jedi Council. Palpatine swiftly has amassed great executive power from the galactic Senate, and these moves have raised suspicion among the powerful Jedi Council, especially with Yoda and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson). When Palpatine appoints Anakin as his own representative to the Jedi Council, an unprecedented move that justifies every fear and suspicion held by the Jedi, the council asks Anakin to spy on his powerful new mentor. What will Anakin discover about Palpatine? Who will Anakin support, the Jedi or Palpatine? Will anyone discover Anakin's secret marriage to Amidala (Natalie Portman), and her pregnancy? After laying down the foundation for this film over the course of almost 30 years, Lucas delivers a movie with a fantastic story, powerful drama and a stunning climax that will have you walking out of the theater and getting back in line again. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith starts off like all of the other Star Wars movies, but it becomes a darker tale of temptation, misunderstanding, greed, ego and grave loss. Lucas brilliantly shows us how Palpatine has been playing the young Anakin Skywalker like a marionette, feeding his ego, enflaming his fears and isolating him from the very people who have his best interest at heart. It's a deliberate process brought to life by Lucas's dialogue and an amazing performance from McDiarmid, who slowly becomes the devil and holds out the tempting apple to Skywalker as the movie progresses to its damning conclusion. McDiarmid plays with the words and lets them roll off his tongue in a menacing way that hasn't been equalled in any Star Wars movie. While watching the film, the most doubting of audience member can understand why Anakin makes the decisions he makes, and possibly feels some remorse for the young lad who becomes Darth Vader. Lucas shows us Anakin's greatest fears as the young Jedi dreams of disaster, and is offered a chance to avert it. Also, we see how Anakin thinks he is doing the right thing, even in the face of his friends' doubts. Best of all, Lucas puts in a nice segment where Palpatine possibly explains one of Star Wars' greatest mysteries, an allusion to and possible explanation of Anakin Skywalker's immaculate conception, which we learned about in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. This piece of information, teamed with the events from all of the other movies, gives the audience a belief that everyone, good and evil, has been at the mercy of destiny. All of these events have transpired for some greater reason, which is where Lucas blew my mind. Lucas also shows his filmmaking genius in the way Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith changes in tone as Anakin moves down the path to the dark side. The tone and look of the movie shed any happy, hopeful feel to become dark, brooding and ominous as Anakin descends into hell. The music becomes dangerous. The physical look of the movie is darker, begging us to look into the shadows and into the eyes of evil. The characters act in ways that shock us, and the violence becomes more graphic. The audience feels evil creeping in and taking over every aspect of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Through the script, Lucas finds the perfect words for Obi-Wan, Yoda and Amidala to express their regret over what has transpired and help them plead with Anakin to stop the madness. Lucas's best dialogue is given to Obi-Wan and the great McGregor as Obi-Wan stands toe to toe with Anakin and pours his heart out about what was to be, and hopes for a chance to avoid perpetrating the painful act he knows must be done to stop the growing madman. McGregor shows us the pain his character feels as everything he believes in has been destroyed, and the way his heart breaks watching the boy he treated like a brother going down the wrong path. Finally, we get to the movie's strongest attributes - the action scenes and special effects. Lucas fills Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith with more light saber battles than ever, an amazing opening sequence as Anakin and Obi-Wan attempt to rescue the Chancellor, a new evil villain (General Grievous) who is completely computer generated and moves in ways we haven't seen before in a movie, the return of some familiar characters and the creation of several worlds alive only in our greatest fantasies until this film. He and the team at Industrial Light and Magic painstakingly tie together this movie's designs with those from the next episode, Star Wars: A New Hope (AKA the first Star Wars movie). We can see the step just before troops become stormtroopers, battleships become familiar vehicles we saw in 1977 and the early stages of one very important weapon. In a way, the team had to create the designs backwards. Instead of taking us from step 1 to step 6, the artists had to imagine how a finished product would have evolved. It's a brain twisting exercise executed brilliantly. Many have asked me if this movie is safe for kids. While I'm not an expert (check out my pals moviemom.com and screenit.com for better guidance), I do think parents should be very careful with young children 8 years and under. The film is full of light sabers cutting off people's limbs, a key character being burned to death, another important character committing a horrific act against children and the deaths of many. This is big stuff, full of peril and evil. Parents with kids from 9 -12 years old should gauge how their own child handles such violence and tones. Now, we find ourselves in a place I have been regretting. I had a lot of fun with the Star Wars Countdown, debating possible titles and endings with my friends, and, of course, wondering whether or not Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith could ever live up to our expectations. But, it's over. I know there will be a TV show in the future, but that could never be the same as sitting in the theater with your friends and staring up at that big screen with awe and wonder. Without a doubt, Star Wars has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It started when I was a young boy, playing with the toys, reading the books, watching the ill-fated Christmas special on TV and fantasizing about a galaxy far, far away where the good guys were doing the right thing for the right reasons, and you had some faith they wouldn't let you down. Over the years, it became late nights watching the movies over and over again, complaining about "the teddy bear picnic" at the end of Return of the Jedi, going to the theater to see them all over again when Lucas re-released the films, and hearing the rumor there were more stories to be told. Now, I find myself at a place and age in life where I'm not supposed to care about this stuff anymore, but it sure was nice to get away from everything and see this world come to life again. It was like being a kid for a few more hours. Maybe, someday, George Lucas will accidentally stumble across this review while looking for a better movie critic like Ebert or his fellow Pulitzer Prize winners, only to find himself reading my ramblings. If he does, I hope he knows what all of it has meant to me. THANK YOU, George. 5 Waffles (Out of 4) Copyright 2005 - WaffleMovies.com
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