Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

       

"Here we go again."

         

And so we reach the final (and by a fair way the best) installment in the prequel trilogy.

       

We open with an incredible space battle, and some nice interior scenes in the Invisible Hand. Count Dooku's death really shocked me - I mean, I knew he had to go, but at the behest of his own master? Poor guy. But never fear, as my second favorite 'Star Wars' villain (I know, neither of them are from the original trilogy, but I grew up with these ones) enters: General Grievous. The name is fairly self explanatory, and he provides both the main antagonist (at least until the mid portion of the film) and a warning of what Anakin will soon become.
     

He is excellently designed and voiced, the major crime (Major Crime) being the speed of his demise. He lacks the principles and old fashioned fencing skills that I loved Dooku for, but he makes up for it in his venomous hatred of all Jedi, his four arms, and his running away skills. I wish there could have been a part where he and Dooku interacted, even if it had been a deleted scene (I liked Shaak Ti) but I guess Christopher Lee was too busy recording heavy metal to go talking to a green screen.

There are lots of snippets of battles on various planets, really driving home the fact that the Clone Wars are a galaxy wide conflict. This movie has a bigness to it that 'Attack of the Clones' lacks slightly, and that is all but nonexistent in 'The Phantom Menace'.

Anakin's wining has suddenly become more interesting too, as we can clearly see where he's headed now. Ewan McGregor's acting (he plays Obi Wan) in these movies is often criticised, and while I agree that he wasn't trying particularly hard, he was emulating Alec Guinness (the original Obi Wan) pretty well. The same cannot be said of Padme however. She's as wooden as ever.
     

The film concludes with order 66 being carried out, and Anakin being massively disfigured at the hands of Obi-Wan and a river of lava. Both of these scenes are devastating, and are handled excellently. Even at 10, or however old I was, it was difficult to watch. It's an almost Shakespearean tragedy, as both sides of the Clone Wars have been manipulated and betrayed by the dark side. I almost felt worse for the Separatists, as I always liked their style and appreciated that they were striving for change (a change that was possibly not completely motivated by greed).

All the pieces fall into place, and we go in to the original 'Star Wars' movie with a far darker view of this universe. Ben's shaded looks become haunting. Vader is much more than just a big emotionless robot. Screw goody goody Luke, Anakin is the real hero of these movies. It's good that Darth Vader isn't as dexterous as General Grievous. While Grievous hits his stride after his "accident", Vader is broken in every way. He was never really cut out for the dark side - or perhaps he was, as while Palpatine was the cackling embodiment of pure evil, Anakin is indecisive and prone to acts of passionate violence. He is far more human than his dark master, and this makes him far more frightening.
It's just a shame all of this was expressed so artlessly, in what could have been a far better film.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: 49.7