Movie Review: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) written and directed by George Lucas

For my reviews of Episodes I and II, see here.

Jedis Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) are still fighting the Clone War started in Episode II. The Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is kidnapped by evil Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), leader of the Separatists and the droid army. The Jedi quickly save him. Anakin follows Palpatine's order to kill Dooku, who is their defenseless prisoner (Obi-Wan is knocked out on the side). Anakin says it was wrong but doesn't look very regretful. The Separatists are now led by General Grievous, so the war isn't over yet. On the capital planet Coruscant, Anakin meets with his wife Padme (Natalie Portman), who tells him she is pregnant. He clearly has mixed feelings about that. He has visions of her dying in childbirth, so he's just as passionate to save her as to end the war. He's been friends with Palpatine, who now asks Anakin to be appointed to the Jedi Council as his representative. Palpatine wants a spy among the Jedi. The Jedi reluctantly accept but deny Anakin the rank of Master, which makes Anakin angry. Also, they ask him to spy on Palpatine. As the war progresses, Anakin falls further and further into the Dark Side of the Force, leading to all sorts of atrocities in the name of keeping Palpatine in power and of saving Padme.

After two prequels with clunky plotting, this movie's story moves fairly naturally and convincingly to the ultimate outcome expected by everyone who has seen Episodes IV to VI. On the other hand, the script certainly lacks subtly and nuance, cf. every time Anakin says "I shouldn't have done that." His fall is tragic and he probably could have avoided it, but temptation can be very hard to resist. But he does do a lot of very bad actions. The plot is much better, though that's a low bar to overcome.

The acting shows a lot of improvement over the previous films. Christensen's performance isn't that great but it's much better than in Episode II. Portman is a bit stuck as the pregnant wife who's begging her husband to do the right thing. She doesn't have a lot to do but be a moral pivot that Anakin doesn't use to get back on the good side. McDiarmid is very good as the Chancellor; he's a bit of a pantomime villain as Darth Sidious--too much gleeful cackling. C-3PO's comic relief dialogue is kept to a minimum, which is good considering the wince-inducing jokes from Episode II.

The special effects are mostly good. Some attempts to blend the live-action actors with CGI backgrounds and characters look unconvincing. Most of the battle sequences are good and the light saber fights are well done. Technically, the movie looks good.

Episode III is, in the set of Star Wars movies, in the middle quality-wise, along with Return of the Jedi.

Recommended.