Review: Revenge of the Sith
[Spoilers Ahead!]
Friday night, my wife and I saw Revenge of the Sith for the first time. Despite having absolutely lousy seats in the far left hand corner of a small theater, I was nonetheless thoroughly impressed by this film. It pretty much wipes away every evil thought I’ve ever harbored about George Lucas. I admit I bought the novelization and the Dark Horse comic version of the story last month, so I knew the film was going to be good, but I didn’t know how good. It was so good, the day after seeing the film, I even bought some action figures at Wal-Mart (for my son, of course). On Sunday, I took him to Burger King and bought him a kid’s meal, which came with a small, plush Chewbacca. I have thoroughly succumbed to the effects of the marketing Force that is Star Wars. And I love it.
Before I get to my film review, let me say I remember the marketing around the original Star Wars in 1978. I saw that film when I was five years old, and my parents bought the toys, and the Burger King drinking glasses, and the lunch box, and the clothing, and the bed sheets, and I mailed away for the Boba Fett action figure, and I wore a cheap, vinyl and plastic C-3PO costume for Halloween one year, and a cheap, vinyl and plastic Darth Vader costume the next year. Anyone who thinks the marketing of Star Wars has been out of hand this year forgets what it was like in the period 1978-1983, when the original trilogy was the hottest thing in American pop culture. So I’m not going to nag Lucas about “selling out” anymore. I grumbled about that for awhile, but then I remembered how thoroughly my parents and I bought into the franchise the first time around, and I asked myself, who cares? Buying stuff is part of the fun. Let the man make another million. I’m enjoying myself.
Unfortunately, I could not take my son to Revenge of the Sith. He is only four, so the whole second-time-around Star Wars experience has been mostly lost on him. If he had been five this year, as I was in 1978, I would have taken him to the movie. He does have an interest in Star Wars, since his friends have been talking about it and playing it at his pre-school, and he tells me he wants to be Darth Vader for Halloween (in the next sentence, he says he wants to be SpongeBob, though). Even at five, however, “Revenge” might be a bit intense for a child who has heretofore seen nothing more shocking than Monsters Inc., though I did see some pretty small children at the theatre.
The film is violent, but much of its most gruesome violence is only implied. The decapitation of Darth Tyrannus, the scouring of the Jedi temple, and the slaughter of the innocent Jedi younglings all occur mostly off camera. Even so, the film might be too intense for a young child. Parents have to make up their own mind about that. There is also a scene near the end of the film in which Anakin’s legs and one arm are cut off and he bursts into flames; then not long after this, we see his badly burned body on a medical table. This is as gruesome as the film gets, but Lucas had to show us these scenes. Fans would not have been satisfied otherwise. Now the only question is, will the most esoteric Hasbro action figure be the “burn victim Vader” figure with lopped-off limbs, or will it be the so far nameless Jedi youngling killed in front of Bail Organa during the scouring of the temple?
My overall opinion is that in this one film, Lucas has achieved the success that has eluded him in his other prequels. As The Empire Strikes Back is to the original trilogy, so Revenge of the Sith is to the prequels. It is the best of the three. It cannot be compared to the original movies, however, because of the vast gulf in technology between the making of the two films.
To sum up what I liked, I would emphasize three things humor, irony, and connection with A New Hope, numerically if not chronologically the next film in the saga.
In terms of humor, this was by far the most humorous of the three films, which was a relief after the weak seriousness of the other two. Artoo steals the opening half hour or so, during the rescue of Palpatine from General Grievous. Obi-Wan’s dry humor, reminiscent of Han Solo, is also in full display in this film. After killing General Grievous with his own blaster, Obi-Wan dismissively chucks the blaster on the general’s metal frame, saying, “How uncivilized.” At once, this is both a sly echo of something Obi-Wan says to Han Solo in A New Hope, and it’s a damned funny line. This is the Obi-Wan I love, the Obi-Wan I wish we’d known in Attack of the Clones.
The film is also heavy on irony. Certain scenes ironically foreshadow scenes from the “later” films, such as Return of the Jedi. The duel between Anakin and Darth Tyrannus (sorry, I can’t bring myself to use the name Count Dooku) is set in the General’s Quarters aboard his ship The Invisible Hand, a setting which is reminiscent of the throne room duel between Anakin/Vader and Luke Skywalker years later. In the end, Anakin is given essentially the same choice Palpatine will later offer Luke: kill the Sith Lord and take his place at the side of Palpatine. Anakin does not necessarily know that killing Tyrannus will bring his conversion to the Dark Side a step closer, but he knows that killing the unarmed, defenseless man is against the Jedi code. Anakin chooses differently from Luke, to the detriment of the entire Universe.
In a way, the film is all about ironic choices. Anakin’s choice to join the Dark Side in order to save Padm� is ironic because his choice kills her and enslaves the galaxy. Another irony is that Anakin does not even receive the power he wants, which is to prevent the death of those he loves. In the Opera House scene that is integral to an understanding of the entire six-film Star Wars saga, Palpatine tells Anakin the story of Darth Plaguesis, who learned how to prevent death for others, though not himself. After passing along his knowledge to his apprentice, the apprentice killed Plaguesis. Along with Anakin, we later learn that apprentice was Palpatine himself. Thus Palpatine essentially claims he knows how to forestall death. However, in the scene after Anakin and Palpatine have killed Mace Windu, and Anakin has completely given himself to the Sith, Palpatine says that he and Anakin will discover this power together. Anakin does not even realize that Palpatine has already reneged on his offer of the one power Anakin desires.
Another ironic choice: Anakin saves Obi-Wan from the collapsing Invisible Hand, even as Palpatine tells him to leave his old Master. This is perhaps Anakin’s last good act, and it in effect seals his doom and his redemption. By saving Obi-Wan, Anakin assured the survival of Luke and Leia and the downfall of the Empire.
Another ironic choice: the Jedi council chooses to split up Obi-Wan and Anakin, sending Obi-Wan off to search for General Grievous. Part of me suspects Anakin’s conversion to the Dark Side would have been more difficult if Obi-Wan had been around. Despite Anakin’s rebellion against his Master, Obi-Wan seems to ground Anakin in a way he sorely needs. Not to mention, Anakin seems to genuinely love Obi-Wan as a brother every bit as much as Obi-Wan loves him. Love is a powerful force for good in Star Wars, something the Jedi apparently did not realize until too late. It is ultimately their rejection of love, via their rejection of ‘attachment’ that seals their fate as well.
Speaking of love, there is a lot to love about Revenge of the Sith. My favorite scene is the one in which Obi-Wan confronts General Grievous on the planet Utapau, near the end of the story. The way the scene is shot, the camera first zooms in on Grievous’s reptilian eyes behind his cyborg’s mask. Then the camera zooms in on Obi Wan’s eyes, just like in those old Kurosawa films the saga is supposedly based on. Despite the odds against him, Obi-Wan seems almost happy at this moment in his life. The way the scene is depicted in the novelization, this is Obi-Wan’s last triumphant moment as a Jedi Master. The Force has never been stronger in him. At this point, he still believes that he is fighting for the Republic. It’s a beautifully done scene. He stands ready, almost at ease before the seemingly overwhelming threat arrayed against him, and the camera zooms in on the eyes…
Brilliant.
Other bright moments are Artoo’s scenes at the beginning of the film and the systematic slaying of the Jedi, after Palpatine delivers Order 66 to his Clone commanders. The annihilation of the Jedi Order is something fans have always wanted to witness. Seeing the Jedi killed is painful to watch…almost as painful as Hayden Christensen’s acting, which is the one sore spot in the film. Natalie Portman is not much better. Maybe the fault lies with Lucas’s writing, but maybe it lies with the actors, too. Christensen makes a block of wood appear emotionally flexible. His acceptance of Sith-hood while kneeling before Palpatine is delivered flat, as if he were accepting some investment advice from his old mentor. “Yes, My Master, I will always sell high…” Christensen’s love scenes are also uninspired, but Portman is actually worse in these scenes. “Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo,” she says to Anakin at one point, and you want to say, “And while you’re at it, Anakin, why not drown her, too.” I thought she did well in the previous two films, given the material; however, in “Revenge,” Portman and Christenson are in a real horse race for the worst actors in the film.
I also felt that Lucas badly botched the death of Padm�. She dies of a broken heart, which is just about the oldest trick in the book, as far as plot devices are concerned. Lucas could have left her death ambiguous, and the audience would have assumed that Anakin’s Force choke broke something inside her. Instead, Lucas has the medical droid say that there is nothing medically wrong with her, but she has lost the will to live.
Overall, however, the film provides everything a Star Wars fan could have desired: lots of action, lots of Jedi, some exegesis of such things as ghostly Jedis and the origins of Palpatine, Palpatine wielding a lightsabre, and plenty of connection to the original trilogy. The end is especially nice in the latter regard.
As a kid, I always wondered what Princess Leia’s home planet of Alderaan looked like. It looked so earth-like when viewed from the Death Star shortly before its destruction. Lucas answers that question in “Revenge.” In fact, Alderaan looks rather like Switzerland. In a closing scene, we see Leia in the arms of her adoptive parents, who are seated in front of a window looking out upon a beautiful mountain vista. And in the final scene, we see Owen and Beru Lars holding the infant Luke as the suns set over Tatooine. The scene is reminiscent of another sunset in A New Hope in which Luke alone gazes up into the darkening heavens.
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I too greatly enjoyed revenge. Just a quick add: I thought that, after the medical droid says she has lost the will to live (which made me groan), that later palpatine tells anakin he in fact killed her in his rage. which would mean that his visions weren’t merely of padme dying, but of him causing her death. unless this was another of palpatine’s lies to make his transformation a little neater.
Comment by Heather — Monday, 23 May 2005 @ 12:39 pm
I took that line as a half-truth meant to permanently destroy any good remaining in Anakin. Anakin did kill her, though not directly via the Force choke. If you notice, after he delivers that line and Vader goes ballistic, Palpatine is leering happily as Vader lashes out, indicating he wants Anakin to be enraged.
Comment by Matthew — Monday, 23 May 2005 @ 12:43 pm
Hmmm. Good point. Though I thought there might be other ways to kill from afar than the Force choke, to make the line not necessarily just philisophically true, but physically true as well. (That dern mystical Force, you know…)
Comment by Heather — Monday, 23 May 2005 @ 1:07 pm
I have to say that I succumbed to some marketing yesterday and bought an Obi-Wan action figure. But I was quite disappointed that the store was out of the characters I most wanted: Mace Windu (known alternatively by my friends as Samuel L. Whoopass!); Yoda, Darth Vader and Anakin Sykwalker. Perhaps R2-D2 and Chewbacca, if I was feeling very rich. I paused on Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Then I started getting irritated. Then there’s a version before he goes all blue lightning, where he’s wearing black robes. Then there’s a third version where he changes from Chancellor to Darth Sidious. And apparently there’s a yet fourth one somewhere. But the Target I was at had been cleaned out of anything I wanted. Mostly they had characters that had names I didn’t know (undoubtedly the only reason you would know them is if you’d read the novelization, eh hem, Matt?)
So I might go sneakily hunting for at least one other character today. I’d just be happy to have Yoda. (And I wondered why there was no Padme, but heaven forbid we should have a pregnant action figure! That, and since she is not involved in action, I guess there’d be no point.)
I’m glad that a lot of the ends were connected in Revenge, so we can see how Darth Vader/Anakin got to the point where he needed to be in the black suit. But some of the other connections were a bit of a stretch, thrown in to delight fans. Like passing off the droids to Captain Antilles. So he’d be pretty old, older than in the next movies?
I kept getting mad because I knew that Padme couldn’t die, because Leia remembered her mother. Well, that, at least, was taken care of. I did remember that she was the daughter of Senator Organa from my reading of some of the books (many years ago.) I took bad the bad thing I said about arrogance and thinking we wouldn’t notice.
Like seeing the beginning construction of the Death Star. How much time passes? Shall we say 20 years? Do you want me to believe it took 20 years to construct? Sure, it’s the size of a moon, but still! And the fact that there’s another Death Star after that, in the wings? How long did that take?
And with the dying of a broken heart thing… that’s the second-oldest trick in the book, right next to childbirth.
I too found the love scenes with Anakin and Padme to be wooden, as usual. But they didn’t have much choice.
Anyone else notice that the female character in both trilogies gets progressively weaker in each movie? Leia, shooting guns, planning rebellions in the first. By the third, she’s in a skimpy outfit, waiting to be rescued. (Granted, she also plays the bit of the bounty hunter, and later has the speeder scene, but still, there are pains to make her girly. Because once you capture a girl, you have to make her your slave, even though you’re a fat, gibbering beast who should have no interest in humans.)
Padme, kicking ass in I, a bit less so in II, and by the third, she just simpers and waits around a lot. Look, the shame of a pregnancy out of wedlock? WHAT? How shocking. Never mind that it’s with a Jedi, forbidden such ties. But come on….The Queen won’t let her serve in the Senate?
I did find the movie to be quite emotional for the characters, as well as me. I thought, wow, the rending of Obi-Wan from Anakin, leaving him there to die.
I didn’t find the moment where newly revealed Darth finds out that he supposedly killed Padme to be particularly convincing though. I would think he would’ve tried to kill Palpatine, who after all forced him to betray everything he knew and loved for nothing. But then we wouldn’t have the following movies.
All those things said, I liked this movie much more than expected. As you said, Matt, the humor was good. I loved seeing R2 getting a more active role, though I wondered how his lack of such mobility in the later movies could be explained.
I really did hope that Anakin would somehow break free, even though I knew he wouldn’t. It was still quite heart-wrenching to see him make those terrible choices. You knew that he was fighting, but that somehow, there was just something wrong with him, and the way he made decisions.
I think it’s a very interesting observation that you had about splitting him and Obi-Wan up. Obi-Wan was his balance. I didn’t think of it that way. And there was a reason Anakin was not a master.
And back to the action figures…. There is a Darth Vader version that I didn’t buy, mostly because I found it to be way too cheesy, that features him just after he’s been put in the suit. His face is perfectly smooth, but to counter that, it has been painted a dark brown. As if he’s African-American instead of burned. I found that to be a little insulting and lazy. So that’s ultimately why I didn’t buy it.
But if you want nice violence, the General Grievous (and don’t you just hate all these cheesy names?) action figure actually explodes! Well, according to the box.
Actually, if you look at the picture, it comes apart, basically. I assume there’s some action or button or something, but it comes apart. No flames. Still, selling that to a kid? Priceless.
Of course, most of us buying this crap are grown up kids.
I’m only buying the cheap, basic characters. I don’t want the big 10 or 12 inch figure of Anakin (with plastic lava unconvincingly all around) or Obi-Wan. I just want the tiny characters of my youth.
Comment by Mel B. — Monday, 23 May 2005 @ 2:17 pm
I bought Yoda and Chewbacca on Sunday. There are two Yodas; I bought the one with the cannon. He seemed more posable than the “spinning attack” Yoda. I also bought a few others shortly after the first wave of figures were relased. I’ve bought all the Jedi except Plo Kloon, and I bought Darth Tyrannus, as well as a Clone trooper commander. No Palpatine. The one version I saw had the lightsabre molded into his hand, which is too reminiscent of the poorly-made original figures from the late seventies. I hadn’t seen the Darth Vader figure you mention–is that the one with Anakin and you can dress him up in Vader costume? That one’s been sold out since the toys went on sale. I bought the basic Darth Vader, and Brendan has already lost his lightsabre. At one time, I would have cared about that, but after four years of parenthood I’m used to having stuff disappear, including my hair.
And btw, there is a pregnant Padmé figure. I haven’t bought it yet. I’m more interested in the odd-ball characters, like Jedi Shaak Ti…the ones one would only know if one had read the novel
I’ve also wondered about the construction of the Death Star. It took more than twenty years to construct the first one (remember the holographic shot of it in “Clones?” The Geonosians had already designed it way back at the beginning of the war.) Hardly any time passes between “Empire” and “Jedi,” yet a new Death Star is already “fully operational” by the time of Jedi. Unbelievable. I think Lucas just ran out of ideas by the time Jedi came around, so he said, “What the heck. Just let them fight another Death Star.” Personally I think “Jedi” is the worst of the three original movies.
There are points throughout the film (”Revenge”) where the outcome of the story could go either way, and it’s a testament to Lucas that even though we the audience know how the story comes out, we still for a moment see it transpiring differently. The quintessential such moment is when Anakin tells Mace Windu that Palpatine is Darth Sidious. For just a moment, the viewer believes that disaster has been avoided. But this is a tragedy: disaster has just been delayed.
Comment by Matthew — Monday, 23 May 2005 @ 2:43 pm
No, this is just Vader. If I found one I could dress up as Darth, I might’ve bought it. And I did find a Yoda, but he was sitting crosslegged on some insect thing. That is not the Yoda I want. I just want a plain old Yoda.
Grr. I could start on another toy rant, but I won’t. Saw the Mr. Potato Head Vader, too, btw. And all I just wanted was a Vader! Is that so hard? NO! Maybe I will go on a search today or tomorrow. I don’t want to be obsessive about it, but if I could only have one character, it would be Vader. Or Yoda. Or …. damn!
I wonder with the Death Star, if that wasn’t just waiting in the wings, that they’d already been working on another? Still, it seems pretty improbable. And yes, you’re right, Lucas did probably run out of ideas. Give ‘em another Death Star, ah yes.
Btw, did you notice that only bad guys develop maniacal, cackling laughter? Palpatine, especially after he’d been deformed by his own lightning (thus cleverly changing his appearance), was cackling a lot. Probably way too much. A cackle here and there, fine. Insane, nonstop cackling as you force Anakin to the dark side… no. It’s some terrible, hackneyed bad guy convention that needs to go.
You’re right about that pivotal moment, when Anakin tells Mace Windu. There is still some hope. You wonder what could happen that would change him into Vader. Maybe it doesn’t happen here. Maybe it’s a failure to help Padme. But no.
I wish Anakin had been smart enough to realize that he was being played. He’d essentially, as you’d said earlier, been told that Palpatine would help him find the power to save Padme together. Instead of the original lie sold to him.
You would think once he realized that he was being played by an evil man who stood for everything he was once against, that he would turn aside. But power, the lesson is, must consume, and probably obliterates reason. That’s why the dark side is powerful.
I also liked the parallel scenes between the death of Padme (and the birth of the twins) and the birth of Vader and the death of Anakin. Maybe a little heavy-handed, but overall nice. Apart from the ooh, she died from heartbreak thing. And just how pregnant was she, anyway?
Comment by Mel B. — Tuesday, 24 May 2005 @ 2:03 pm
One can learn in the process of making the first death star, so a second one would be much easier to make.
I saw the New Hope when I was two, Matt, with my parents and so I’m sure you could sneak your kid into see the movie if you wanted to. I wrote about it at my blog. I guess I’m no where near as much of a fan as you, and so I didn’t pick up on as much.
I ended up concentrating more on the manicheistic themes within the movie.
dlw
Comment by dlw — Tuesday, 24 May 2005 @ 2:38 pm
I could have taken Brendan to the movie. What I meant was that I thought it would be too intense for him. He really hasn’t seen any violence on film or TV. The couple times I tried to show him the Phantom Menace and A New Hope on DVD, he was frightened by what little he saw of these films.
I’m not trying to coddle him or anything. Believe me, I want him to like these films. But I’m not going to push it. I like a full night sleep, uninterrupted by a young child screaming in the middle of the night after having a nightmare.
Comment by Matthew — Tuesday, 24 May 2005 @ 2:53 pm
Your start to the post about your crappy seats made me think of the nearly empty theatre that I sat in last night watching the flick. Of course, it was a Sunday night during students’ finals week here in Be. But still I found it funny to watch the blockbuster Star Wars final film with hardly any company.
Comment by wadulisi — Monday, 30 May 2005 @ 4:13 am
I almost went and saw it again this weekend. Friday night, we took Brendan to see “Madagascar,” and my wife offered to let me slip into Star Wars while she and Brendan watched “Madagascar.” But I turned her down. Still, the movie seemed pretty popular even into its second week here. From the peek I took just before the movie began, the theatre was pretty crowded. “Revenge of the Sith” has revived a lot of the excitement I felt in ‘99, just before “Phantom Menace” premiered. After the disappointment of Episode I, I felt little about Episode II, even though it was marginally better. But Episode III was a welcome relief, more akin to the older films than any of the others.
Comment by Matthew — Monday, 30 May 2005 @ 10:43 am