Journey To The Force Awakens - Revenge of the Sith

IMDb

Title: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Distributor: Lucasfilm (20th Century Fox)
Director: George Lucas
Writer(s): George Lucas  
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Christopher Lee, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, Samuel L. Jackson.   
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images
Running Time: 140 min
Synopsis: Three years after the onset of the Clone Wars; the noble Jedi Knights are spread out across the galaxy leading a massive clone army in the war against the Separatists.

What Others Are Saying? 

Rotten Tomatoes: 79% "Fresh", Top Critics: 67% "Fresh", Audience: 65% "Liked It"
Metacritic: Critics: 68 out of 100, Users: 7.3 out of 10
MRQE: 77 out of 100

My Review

Preface: Collider Video just posted their commentary video of this film a few days ago. To catch everyone up. I'm following along with Collider Video and creating my own, "Journey to the Force Awakens." They plan on watch all the live action Star Wars film leading up to the Force Awakens. I'm responding by writing a movie review for each film. If you want to read my review of Attack of the Clones click here.

Source Material: Original story by George Lucas 

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: Out of all the prequel Star Wars film this film has a good balance of action vs non-action sequences. Unlike the Attack of the Clones, this film's action actually has meaning. There really isn't any action for action sake.

• Comedy Elements: Guess who doesn't really show up, yep, Jar Jar. Therefore, there is less cheesiness and humor for children.

• Dramatic Elements: I felt like there was more of an effort, but the dramatic impactful scenes seemed to fall a little flat.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: This film started to get back to the Star Wars fiction, but again it didn't quite make it. This film focuses heavily on war, more so than the other prequel films.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 6: For me, the person that flexed his acting chops was Ewan McGregor. We see him own Obi-Wan as a character. His emulation of Alec Guinness made me feel that Obi-Wan was real. Ewan McGregor didn't give a perfect performance, but he was one of the stronger actors on screen. I would say the person who gave the best performance was Ian McDiarmid. He commands the scene with his acting. It was a shame that most of his scene were shared with Hayden Christensen, who in my opinion was the worst actor on screen. Don't get me wrong he did improve vastly from Attack of the Clone to this film. We see the best interchanges between Obi-Wan and Anakin in the prequels. Even his scene with Natalie Portman showcased a little more chemistry. Even though Hayden did improve he still gave a, "reading off the page" performance, which in my opinion sucked out the impactfulness of some scenes.

• Cinematography: 8: I thought this film was shot beautifully. The opening sequence was one of my favorite sequences in this film. The tone of the film was brought out through the cinematography, especially since the acting wasn't on point.

• Direction: 6:We got a classic George again with this film.

• Editing: 7: I thought the editing on this film was better than the other prequel films. With that being said, I still believe there were a few scenes that could use some tightening up, like the fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan.

• Screenplay: 5: I have to say it again, the major downfall of the prequel Star Wars films is its dialogue, but even that wasn't the worst of the worst. I think there were some major flaws. Anakin's transformation to Vader was sudden. He goes from wanting to arrest Palpatine to a straight up, evil killing machine. Anakin's fall to the dark side takes up less than five minutes of screen time. Other scenes were more or less a waste like the battle on the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk. It was cool to see but didn't press the storyline forward. It also made an unnecessary connection. Everyone in the Star Wars universe doesn't need to be connected i.e. Yoda and Chewbacca. It seems like George was trying to cram as much connective storyline into one film as he could which made for a weaker story overall.

• Sound and Music: 9: Awsome score and awesome sound design as usual.

• VFX: 9: I enjoyed the visual effect in this film over the other prequel films. My eye didn't catch any, "that looks weird or fake" moments like it did in the Attack of the Clones.

Overall: 7: Out all of the prequel films, the Revenge of the Sith would be the one I would recommend seeing. Because it has good action and a decent story, even though that story has many flaws. May the Force Be With You.