Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Review

Lets get the most important fact out there first. This is by far the best film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. It is light years ahead of The Phantom Menace and significantly better than Attack of the Clones. But how does Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith compare to the original Star Wars trilogy?

In many ways Revenge of the Sith reminds me of the current trend in fantasy blockbuster books. When an author gets big enough his editor is no longer able to actually edit him effectively and the result is books that are significantly longer than they need to be to tell the story. You could probably have taken a good 30 minutes out of the film and the story would not only still be intact but better paced.

Before this starts to sound too negative let me point out that I did enjoy watching the film. The action sequence that starts things off is brilliant. The special effects are better than anything else you've ever seen. The acting from Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan and Iain McDiarmid as Chancellor Palpetine is probably the best there's been in any Star Wars film.

The problems come in when the plot starts up. The core of the plot is pretty much a classic, but the execution is marred by the need to match up what happens here with a story that was told some 25 years ago. On the whole they do a solid job of that, but there are several niggling problems that can distract you from what's going on during the film.

The bigger problem though is that Hayden Christiansen just completely fails to make me believe in his great love for Padme. That someone could love so deeply they'd end up killing to save that person is an understandable motive, but Anakin just doesn't come across as that deeply in love. Christiansen just doesn't have the acting chops to pull this off properly.

The storyline is also hamstrung by the failures of the earlier movies. Anakin's fall from grace was foreshadowed, but they failed to set it up properly resulting in more of a desperate leap to the dark side rather than a slow corruption which would have been more credible.

There are things that Revenge of the Sith gets right however. It seems that Lucas has finally remembered what Star Wars really is. There's no endless stretches of talking in this film. It's action at the beginning, action at the end and a whole bunch of action scenes in the middle. That's what Star Wars fans wanted to see all along. If this review comes across as negative it's because I see the elements of an even better film wrapped up in Revenge of the Sith.

So where does Revenge of the Sith line up compared to the original trilogy? For me, its always been A New Hope first, then The Empire Strikes Back, then Return of the Jedi. Revenge of the Sith lacks the feeling of a complete story that A New Hope has and it also lacks the directorial sophistication of Empire Strikes Back. But when compared to Return of the Jedi, Revenge of the Sith actually has far more spectacle than that film and as strong a story. So my personal list is now:

A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Revenge of the Sith, The Return of the Jedi, Attack of the Clones, The Phantom Menace.