attacks by the ruthless Sith Lord, Count
Dooku. There are heroes on both sides.
Evil is everywhere.
In a stunning move, the fiendish droid
leader, General Grievous, has swept
into the Republic capital and kidnapped
Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the
Galactic Senate.
As the Separatist Droid Army attempts
to flee the besieged capital with their
valuable hostage, two Jedi knights lead
a desperate mission to rescue the
captive Chancellor...
Revenge of the Sith completes the circle for all Star Wars fans and fanatics spread all over the world. Having bathed in this genre of movies (yes, it did create a separate genre of its own), the enthusiasts have all been waiting for the moment of reckoning for Anakin Skywalker where he makes the decision that was to clarify the role of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. Revenge of the Sith is where Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader, it is in this movie where he has the first of the famous duels with Obi-Wan, it is here that the Chancellor of the Republic proclaims himself to be the dark Lord and tranforms into the Emperor...and of course, it is in this movie that are born Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and the Empire.
Technically, Lucas Films have managed to create some masterful stuff that does not fail to get the adrenaline flowing. The light sabers flashing as Obi-Wan fights his best apprentice, the star ship with all its guns blazing, the fighters with their small cockpits and amazing manouverability, the different creatures that inhabit that galaxy far far away, the holographic meetings of the Jedi Council, and of course the stormtroopers with their now famous costumes, are all there in full glory in this movie. The technical supremacy does put a fresh outlook for the new series as compared to the earlier trilogy but then again, the charm in seeing the green little Yoda jumping around with his light saber in the earlier versions can hardly be matched by the too-digital Yoda who fights but is unable to defeat the Sith Lord.
One more way in which the movie scores over (or I should rather say, is different from) the first three is the undertone of evil that it is able to bring in to the characters and situations. Return of the Jedi or even The Empire strikes back were rather soft on the evil and the villains (even Darth Vader in the last one) were reduced to caricatures. Revenge of the Sith, however, brings all the tomfoolery to rest as it brings out the evil in Anakin Skywalker ever so wonderfully and does full justice to that famous conversion of the most powerful Jedi into the most powerful Sith Lord.
For all Star Wars fans, the two most important sequences of the series are explained in this movie...the way Darth Vader is born is, of course, one of them, complete with the Obi-Wan duel and the moral struggles of the frustrated Jedi under the influence of a wily Sith Lord. The other important thing is the prophecy that says of Anakin to be the one who will destroy the Sith and bring balance to the force and how the coming of Darth Vader and the birth of Luke and Leia seem to negate that prophecy but not really so...
The best part about this movie is that despite its entire story being anything but hidden, it makes the things come live with all the drama and all the unexpectedness that a thriller can hope for. It is so difficult to match the expectations of generations of fans who have grown on the cult of the Star Wars series and give them something that they can believe to be a suitable explanation of all that they had been seeing over and over again in the movie re-runs, of all that they had anticipated to be behind it all, of all that their juvenile minds had made up about the story before. It won't be an exaggeration to say that Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith manages to do all that and more.
As far as the performances are concerned, they had to be creditable to convince viewers of the evil that surrounds the birth of Darth Vader and fortunately, apart from my personal Obi-Wan disappointment (Ewan Mcgregor seems as if he has just been woken up and asked to smile and look silly...he is a much better actor than this and Obi-Wan's character a finer one, too), rest of the deal is quite good. Anakin, played by Hayden Christensen is definitely the pick of the lot as he manages to portray on screen, a person who is evil but also show pretty convincingly that the most evil thing about him is that he does not think that what he is doing is wrong. He believes in his evil with all faith and of course, all the force. Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine is sufficiently dark and manages to bring in a fine balance between trying to be evil and turning out to be comically evil. Even the shorter roles like those of Padme (Natalie Portman) and Mace Windu (played by Samuel L. Jackson) are finely etched and performed to a fault.
The direction is adequately done and as I have already mentioned a number of times, manages to bring about a satisfactory culmination of the Star Wars saga through some wonderful undertones that the different characters are made to display. Whether it be the evil of Anakin or the helplessness of Padme, the compulsion and pain of Obi-Wan or the lusty hunger for power of the Emperor...everything has an authentic feel about it.
More than anything else, this movie can be counted upon to bring the force to even those who have been aloof from the saga for so long...the first timers would love the movie and ask for more and as for the veterans, I can only say that it you have not been able to see the movie yet, it can only be because either the tickets were unavailable or because some one or some thing was cracking up pretty badly near you...so in order to get you free from your ticketless or incidentful worries and move on to the nearest special effects rich theatre...may the force be with you!
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