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Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith
5/19/05 - PG-13 - 140m
Hayden Christensen - Anakin Skywalker
Ewan McGregor - Obi-Wan Kenobi
Natalie Portman - Padmé
Director: George Lucas
Written by: George Lucas
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Official
Website
JEF
I’ll start with a little build up to the first showing, as this was part of the whole experience for me.
First off, you may or may not know, that I am a geek. I’m proud of being a geek, which makes me even more of a geek. I suppose that the majority of the crazy fans who line up early for a Star Wars movie are all geeks to a certain degree, (though it always amazes me how many different levels of geekdom there are.) No, I’m not so far gone as be one of “those” geeks who dresses up, but I did think it would be rather funny if I dressed as princess Leia just to try and get on the 11 o’clock news. But, I like seeing all the different people dressed in different levels of geekdom. Some just bring a little toy lightsaber, while others will wear a cape, and others will wear a cape and a mask, and then some will attempt to make their own jedi costume. While sitting in Line waiting hours for the movie to start, all these strange characters make that time entertaining.
Thanks to Lyn who had the forethought of pre-purchasing the tickets ahead of time online, we were all set. All we had to do was show up at the theatre in time to get a decent seat, as our show was sold out. Did I mention what time our show was? 12:01 midnight on Thursday morning-Wednesday night. Yes, you might say we are big fans of the Star Wars series. Sure, if we waited a couple days, we could have seen the movie at a “normal” time, and in a less crowded theatre, but that’s not really the point. There is a certain “bragging rights” associated with seeing the FIRST showing in the country. Of course these “bragging rights” are only respected by other geeks, but that’s beside the point.
About 10 minutes before the show started, two fans, that had really nice (and probably expensive) lightsabers, approached the front of the theatre. The crowd started to cheer, then… yes… they started to act out a jedi lightsaber fight. It only lasted for a few minutes, but with a couple fancy moves thrown in, the majority of the crowd appreciated the little side-show.
The worst part about all of this pre-show “hoopla” was the waiting… We arrived at the theatre at about 8:45pm, and we were approx 4th and 5th place in line. This time was spent sitting on the hard tile floor of our local mall, ugh, made me realize I’m getting too old for this. Luckily around 10pm the theatre owners were kind enough to let all the fans in, so we could sit in the theatre (and buy loads of popcorn and soda). For some reason, this was the first time they did this, for episodes I and II, they made us wait outside in the mall area! So… from 10pm, until 2:30am we were sitting in the tiny theatre seats. (They weren’t really tiny, but for that long of time, they seem to shrink). And yet… with all of the strange fans, the long lines, the sore body parts, the incredibly late hours, I really enjoyed this movie.
Storyline: Do I really need to insert a storyline? What person doesn’t know that this is the final episode of Star Wars, that explains the reason why Anakin turned to the darkside. Unless of course you’re not a fan, in which case, why are you reading this review? 
Spoiler alert!
If you have not seen this movie yet, I would strongly advise you to stop reading, and proceed to your nearest theatre and buy a ticket first. I will be talking about specifics in the movie that may give things away…
Criticisms and praise… I thought Hayden Christensen (Anakin) did a much better job this time in his acting. Episode II was a pathetic attempt. Luckily his acting lessons paid off this time. On the other side of this, Natalie Portman (Padmé) did a mediocre job (and that’s being kind). Natalie can act… I’ve seen her act. But in this movie, she just seemed too “fake”. This actually leads to my biggest complaint… the Dialogue was poorly written. I felt there were too many short sentence dialogues. The film was so intent on action that it seemed that any coherent discussions were put on the back burner to make time for yet another battle. Which, brings me to my next complaint… although the fight scenes were very well done, they were too long. Sure, I love these action scenes as much as the next person, but for me, some of these scenes just went on too long. Perhaps this is where seeing the film during a normal time slot, and not waiting in line for hours, may have clouded my judgment.
The effects… Awesome. A few minor disappointments, but overall this is why people love Star Wars, because of the effects. The dragon creature that Obi-Wan was ridding was nice, but the sound of it’s voice was really getting on my nerves, and for a creature this size, it didn’t seem to have any mass. It moved like a CGI character. But this is being nit-picky I admit.
I was disappointed there were not more wookies! I knew ahead of time, that this film was going to show us many more wookies, but I wish they told us more about this “wookie planet”.
I did like the way that this film seemed more character driven. I enjoyed watching the subtleties of how Anakin was deceived and turned to the darkside. I enjoyed the conflict between Anakin and Mace, and Obi-Wan and the inner turmoil of Anakin.
I enjoyed the “cutesy” factor and thought it was done just right without going overboard (like Jar-Jar). The droids little side comments were funny at times. But all in all the film did have a certain “dark” factor to it.
The violence was pretty intense this time. It very much deserves it’s PG-13 rating and… had it not been for the lack of blood, I suspect this would have been an R rated movie. (not to mention, a lot of the violence were robots, so it seems less objectionable.)
Ok, well, I could go on, and this review is starting to become too longwinded. So to recap, I enjoyed this movie in spite of some flaws. I was entertained for 2.5 hours and enjoyed the ride. It is with a heavy heart that this brings an end to the Star Wars saga. I can’t see any other film that would warrant this sort of epic movie making. LOTR is done (maybe – there might be a Hobbit movie coming). Star Wars has ended. Star Trek seems dead. Etc… What will be the next Star Wars? I hope it’s not too long until this question is answered.
Jef
