I’m not going review ‘Revenge of the Sith;’ it’s heart is in the right place but the script and direction leave much to be desired. Of the six Star Wars films I am going to place it fifth.
Pity, really.
The website of Associate Professor of Philosophy M R. X. Dentith
I’m not going review ‘Revenge of the Sith;’ it’s heart is in the right place but the script and direction leave much to be desired. Of the six Star Wars films I am going to place it fifth.
Pity, really.
Comments
Really? I’d place it third — easily the best of the prequels, and a better ending the Return of the Jedi, in my mind. I like how the prequel trilogy adds to the Arthurian feel of the whole series, with Luke becoming Gallahad to Annakin’s Lancelot.
The uncharitable assessment would be that it’s effective because it trades most heavily on nostaliga of the original trilogy (given that it most closely references them) — could be something to that.
See, I think ‘Attack of the Clones’ was a better film because it had a more defined narrative. It may well have been a crappy narrative but it flowed more easily than the jump-cutting of ‘Revenge of the Sith.’ Still, I many have been in a weird mood yesterday and I shall go see the film in a week or two to see whether rewatching it makes me feel more appreciative of the story. It doesn’t help that I rewatched Episodes IV to VI last night and decided that ‘Return of the Jedi’ isn’t as bad as I used to think it was, placing ‘Revenge of the Sith’ at the fifth place rather than the fourth.
Also, I think I was spoilt by reading Alexandra DuPont’s review of ‘Revenge of the Sith’ where she reveals her comments on reading the script version of Anakin’s ‘turning.’ Get that man a latte, indeed.
The Butt-faced Emperor was glorious, however. Indeed, the film was both better and worse than I had hoped for, which is why I think I’m currently so down upon it.
And you can’t deny the epic feat of prosthesis that allowed another human being to have Peter Cushing’s cheekbones…
I do wish, however, that Tarkin had been in a few earlier scenes, just lurking in the background.
In retrospect there is a lot to like about ‘Revenge of the Sith’ and I hope that in a few weeks time I will see it again and enjoy it a lot more. For now, however, the flaws seem insurmountable (Poor Natalie Portman, quite feisty in the first two films, gets so little to do…).