 | Distributor: | 20th Century Fox |
| Release: | May 19, 2005 | |
| Genre: | Action/Adventure Science Fiction/Fantasy | |
| MPAA Rating: | PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images |
When Episode IV came out in 1977, I was a toddler and it was not something I cared about. When Episode V was released in 1980, I kept hearing my classmates talk about it but no one took me to see the movie. The first Star Wars movie I saw was Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, and it instantly made me a fan not only of the series, but of the science fiction genre as well (although one hard core trekkie I know scoffs at Star Wars being called real science fiction). When I was already working, one of the first things I bought was a complete set of the trilogy in VHS (for the younglings, that's how we viewed movies at home before the DVD).
When Lucas released the first of the prequels, I made sure I watched it. I liked Phantom Menace but the movie experience was not as mind-blowing as I expected it to be. Now, Attack of the Clones, to start with, had a title similar to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (yes youngling, it is a movie - and no, I haven't watched it) which made me wonder if I should take this movie seriously. It is the beginning of a love story that ended just before things heated up. Though this movie is ho-hum on the satisfaction scale, you'd find you cannot dismiss it after seeing Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
If the Prequel trilogy is compressed into one movie, Revenge of the Sith is the climax of the storylines set up in the first two movies. If it were a term paper, Phantom Menace is the Introduction, Revenge of the Sith is the Main Body, and Attack of the Clones would be an Appendix or Annex - you could skip it if you want an overview of the plot, but you would need to refer to it when it comes to the specifics.
For me, EPIII is better than the first two. As I heard someone say it, the movie effectively bridges the prequels to the original trilogy. It is the movie that made me want to watch the next three episodes because now I have added information I didn't have when I first watched the story of Luke and Leia unfold.
When the movie started, I liked it immediately - because in contrast to the polished, airbrushed look of the CG in the first 2 prequels, the ships in this movie reminds you of the clunky ones in the early Star Wars movies. For lack of a better term, I call it a more "organic" look. The ships looked like something I could actually touch.
Another thing that made this movie better is the presence of more, or probably heavier, drama. Phantom Menace had that happy-everything's-fine ending. Attack of the Clones, as I said, got to the denouement before really hitting a climax. Revenge of the Sith had a good dose of what made the series a successful space opera, without losing the pacing of an action movie. I felt betrayed as the Jedi were when their clone soldiers turned on them - and I understood how an order as powerful as the Jedi was almost extinct by the time Luke Skywalker became Kenobi's student. I felt heartbroken as Padme when she realized Anakin has joined the Sith. I felt Yoda's pain when it was apparent that the Jedi, even the younglings, were being massacred. I enjoyed this movie waaaay more than I enjoyed Episodes 1 and 2.
I must say: wasn't Anakin's decision to change sides too abrupt? Can a doctor tell me if a DEAD woman's belly remains big AND ROUND AFTER giving birth? Was I the only one who wanted to chuckle at the scene where Darth Vader wails after learning Padme died because of his own doing? Nothing wrong with the scene really, I wanted to chuckle because Vader looked like a wimp in that pose - the head looked to big for the thin body underneath. If you want to criticize this movie, you'd probably find a lot more to poke fun at. Well, I loved this movie, so unless it's something that's so obvious, I'm not gonna go into faultfinding. =)
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