Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

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By Todd Karella
May 19, 2005

Original Story Synopsis:

Movie-Pix Best Guess:

The first two films in this trilogy have been a dissapointment to fans.

There will certainly be a few good scenes and some action sequences, but there's no reason to believe that the bad storyline and horrible acting will improve

The final episode in the Star Wars' prequel trilogy.

Finally the world will know how Anakin turned to the dark side of the force and became the infamous Darth Vader.

Movie-Pix Hit or Miss

Best Guess Results:

Most of the reviews for this film are coming out positive. Not because it's a good film, and not because it deserves it, but because it didn't suck as bad as the last two films in the prequel trilogy.

Not really a reason to praise a film as the first half is full of terrible dialogue, horrible acting, and cartoonish special effects.

About halfway through the film after Anakin turns to the dark side, the film becomes much more enjoyable and worthy of the original trilogy. That's probably because there's less plot and less acting. Sometimes exciting action scenes can save a movie.

Rated PG-13

have everything to do with the last two films. On one hand, the critics are calling it a masterpiece, while on the other they are bashing the storyline, dialogue and acting. They then use their justification of expounding its greatness by comparing it to the most recent Star Wars' films, which are admittedly terrible.
Of course, when you compare a bad movie against two terrible ones it's going to look better than it is. When you try comparing it against the original trilogy you can see the true inadequacy.
A good film must stand on its own merits, and for that alone it fails to be worthy of all the attention that it is receiving.
The film opens with a giant space battle as the clone army of The Republic is attacking the robot army led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and General

The final chapter of one of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster films has finally been told. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith has shattered Box Office records as it raked in more ticket sales for both the single day record held by Shrek 2 and the opening

weekend record previously held by Spider-Man.
While legions of fans flocked to the theatres in record numbers, it was based solely on the strength of the first three films and had little to do with the quality of the proceeding two films.
However, the positive reviews the film has been receiving thus far

~The best of the worst~

Grievous (Matthew Wood). They have kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, and it's up to Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) to rescue him.
The space battle looks more like a video game as the two miraculously manage to survive everything being thrown at them and board the lead carrier. Fighting their way to the Chancellor they end up in a showdown with the count.
While Count Dooku managed to defeat them, plus Master Yoda (Frank Oz) in the previous film, he is easily defeated by a very angry Anakin. He's obviously been practicing over the last five years, too bad it's not on his attitude. Palpatine senses his anger and hatred and convinces the young Jedi to serve as judge, jury and executioner.

During the fight General Grievous manages to escape, leaving the two
Jedis and the Chancellor to crash land the carrier into the nearby planet. While a difficult task under normal circumstances, the fact that the carrier
has been ripped in half and possesses no steering ability makes it that much
harder. Needless to say, they manage to safely enter the atmosphere and
land the ship.

As the war rages on, the Jedi Council becomes more and more suspicious of Chancellor Palpatine and decides to use the one Jedi closest to him, Anakin, to spy on him. The young apprentice is not happy with the assignment as he respects and likes the Chancellor.
Palpatine uses his growing influence over the young man to slowly turn him towards the dark side of the force. Playing on his insecurities, the Chancellor starts making comments about the council's actions and how it's them who are trying to usurp power from the people.
This alone isn't enough to turn him, but once he starts having nightmares about his wife, Padmé (Natalie Portman) dying in labor, finding a way to cheat death becomes his primary obsession.
While Anakin is slowly being turned, Obi-Wan has been chosen to hunt down the fleeing General Grievous.

The General is hiding out in the far reaches of the galaxy where Palpatine has told him to hide and where he has sent Obi-Wan to keep the Jedi Master as far away as possible.
After arriving on the planet Obi-Wan chases after the General who keeps trying to flee, forcing the Jedi to become a cheesy CGI effect riding on the back of another cheesy looking lizard creature until he mages to corner him.
Even though Grievous fights with four light sabers and mysteriously has Jedi powers as well, Obi-Wan manages to defeat him. Maybe it's because he is the better warrior, or maybe it's because Grievous is a cyborg who was stupid enough to keep his bad human lungs that cause him to hack and cough every few minutes.
Once this part is finished the film takes a turn for the better. It's not a

coincidence that this is where the film cuts back on dialogue and story and becomes a film of action.
While Obi-Wan is away, the Chancellor turns Anakin to the dark side and sends him to kill the Jedi, starting with the school of young apprentices. As Anakin kills the children, the signal is given to the clone army to attack the Jedi. Many of them are shot by their own troops.
The only two who manage to survive the onslaught are Master Yoda, who is helped by the Wookies and Obi-Wan who just gets lucky.
Yoda takes on Palpatine in an impressive show of how two masters can control the force, while the other goes after his own apprentice hoping to stop the newly titled Darth Vader.
Both battle scenes are amazing and entertaining to watch even though the audience already knows what the outcome will be.
Yoda barely manages to escape with his life and Obi-Wan leaves his former apprentice in a heaping pile of charred flesh and severed limbs, finally explaining how Darth Vader became the figure in dark armor that we first met in the original trilogy.
The last few moments of the film are a hodgepodge of plot melding to explain some of the questions that have yet to be settled for the next series of films. Why were Luke and Leia split up? What happened to their mother? Why doesn't C3PO know R2D2? Why does R2D2 seem to know certain things he shouldn't? Why don't the two robots recognize the name Skywalker?
This film may not be as good as those in the first trilogy, but it's certainly better than the last two and a must see for any true Star Wars fan.