Star Wars, épisode III : La Revanche des Sith

When I asked the reviewer sitting next to me to sum up Revenge of the Sith, he simply said "great!" That seemed to basically be the consensus of virtually everyone in attendance at an advance press screening of the final chapter in the Star Wars saga.

There was an exuberant mood leaving the theater, as if everyone was in collective agreement that Lucas had finally done it. That he had gone out on top, with a stunning, rock-solid coup de grace. And from all the feedback I've heard from that screening, my sense of that collective mood was right.

There are no real spoilers in ROTS. Everyone basically knows what happens in Episode 4: A New Hope. We all know Anakin becomes Vader. We know Obi Wan lives and we know Luke and Leia are born. What we don't know is how Lucas weaves those story lines into the large, six-part opus and better yet, why?

No, it's not a perfect movie. There are those moments that make us cringe. Bad dialog and High School drama class acting make for a few awkward moments where you can hear audible moans and giggles in the audience, but we have come to expect this from modern Star Wars films. The upside is that these moments are rare in Episode III.

OK, get ready. Take a deep breath. No Jar Jar! Yes, you read that right. You can let out that deep breath now.

Fortunately, we have one savior to rely on for stellar acting. Mr. Ian McDiarmid as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. McDiarmid brings the elegance of an Alec Guiness back to the franchise in a knockout performance that leaves the audience riveted and exhausted. He is the lifeblood of the film.

As someone who saw the original 30 times in it's first month of release at the age of 13, I currently consider myself a Star Wars moderate. I don't have volumes of SW merchandise, nor can I debate whether or not carbonite contains enough oxygen to make it float. All I know is that magical feeling Star Wars gave me in the original 1977 release and that I'm happy to say, after a disappointing pair of prequels, has been finally restored and reinvigorated.

Here's to Mr. Lucas for giving us all something spectacular to remember for our entire lives that embodies the whole point of going to the movies in the first place, to escape and lose ourselves in another world.

I love Star Wars but to be honest I wasn't expecting to be as totally enthralled by Revenge of the Sith like I am. Knowing the final outcome I thought how good can this one be? Well, it met my expectations, and went above and beyond them. I am so overwhelmed by all the visuals, the action, the emotion ... George Lucas is a genius. Hayden Christensen pulled off the transformation (emotionally and physically) superbly. The action was non-stop as was the emotional turmoil. Many true to life themes. Wow! I just can't say enough. Everyone must see this movie. If you're not already a Star Wars fan you will be after Episode III. I feel like I finally "get" the entire series. I have closure now. This is just THE movie to see this year. Like I said not just because it's a great Star Wars movie but because it is just a great movie period. Go see it - you won't be disappointed. You might think you know what's going to happen but they give us so much more than just straight cut answers. This is so much more than the missing piece of the storyline - this is IT! This is why we were blessed with Episodes 5-6 to begin with.

I was on a Combat tour in Iraq ( OIF 2004-2005 ) I watched this film at the theatre of Camp Anaconda, I thought it was the best film of the three prequels

Simply put; it's not a perfect film, yet it is. It's from a simpler time. You can buy a 200 dollar meal from a swanky restaurant but your moms home cooking will always be better. That is ROTS.

Now this is how you end a trilogy and this is how you conclude a climax of one of the greatest sci-fi stories to be told.

There's things to criticise, yes, there's things that could have been improved, yes, but ultimately, George Lucas managed to give us a great end result that, at least to me, is one of the best sci fi movies ever made and certainly the second best, if not the best Star Wars Episode.

Now, some CGI hasn't aged well, we all know it, like for example all clones you'll see in the movies, they just look terrible, but some other still looks amazing, look at the end battle on Mustafar. Gosh the rendering of the environment of that planet is amazing. Also, the dialogues feel more adult and less goofy in comparison to both episode Lucas had made before (i'm referring to the prequels of course). Also, even if some of the acting performances still show to be bad (in a way), there's been some important improvement compared to Star Wars episode II.

This movie also has some depth in the confrontation between Jedi and Sith that has never been brought in any other Star Wars movie. You can understand why Anakin joins the Sith and what motivates Palpatine to be this evil. This movie shows us, what the similarities between Jedi and Sith are and ultimately shows us what the main differences are. It gives us context and gives us the reasons why you may join the dark side. What I mean by this is that, usually the Sith are evil because the script wants it, there's no real reason to it, look at the sequels, why does the first order handle they way it does, because they are evil, that's what we'll be told, but they ultimately lack of a realistic motivation, which makes those movies childish and boring. Now, in this movie, we get to know what Sith want, as Anakin says himself, and I believe Palpatine does too, they want to bring peace, justice and security. What differentiates them from the Jedi is that they want to obtain that, by having full control of the people and institutions, not letting any opponent exist and through an establishment of fear amongst people. This is similar to Hobbes' Leviathan in a way and gives this movie philosophical depth, at least to some degree. I know of course that the philosophical or political ideas aren't very complicated in this movie, but I like the fact that at least it gives you some food for thought, something that the sequels for example do not!

So I do certainly not understand why this movie is rated below Star Wars VII, please join me to fix this! (Also, this movie contains the two best fight scene from the entire Saga, Yoda vs Darth Sidious and Anakin vs Obi-Wan)

That's all folks.