Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

While Anakin may have failed to bring balance to the force, Revenge of the Sith was successful in bringing balance to the prequels. After a couple of blemishes on the Star Wars series with the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, Episode 3 brings Star Wars back to being one of the most entertaining and beloved movie series there is. The visual effects, set pieces and characters are all fantastic, however the truly spectacular aspect of this movie is the action.

I could tell from the opening scene that this was going to be different than the last two. Anakin and Obi Wan flew through an epic space battle, weaving in and out through waves of enemies before blasting their way into an enemy ship holding chancellor Palpatine prisoner. The chemistry displayed between these two in their funny banter back and forth, as well as the way they move as one in battle was unlike any other relationship in the series to date. They find their way to the chancellor, however are met by the evil Count Dooku. In a lightsaber rematch, Anakin proves that he has improved in his skills and defeats the Sith Lord with relative ease. Giving into the pressure of the chancellor, he finishes Dooku by removing his head, clearly beginning his move towards the darkside. I still believe that Dooku should have been finished off at the end of the last movie, however I am glad to see him finished off immediately in this film to make way for the new baddy of the film, General Grievous. Grievous, who was also on this ship, gets away from the ensuing battle and flees to the planet of Utapau.

Our protagonists then rejoin the remainder of the Jedi Council and Galactic Senate in Coruscant. We learn that Padme has a bun in the oven, and much to the dismay of the rest of the members, Palpatine appoints Anakin to the Jedi Council. From here Obi-Wan is tasked with finding Grievous, Yoda goes to fight alongside the Wookies, and Anakin is told to spy on Palpatine as the Jedi Council is starting to sense that he isn’t the man he appears to be.

Obi-Wan finds Grievous and has a fantastic chase scene, with a lightsaber duel that matches (if not surpasses) any other seen to date in the series. Grievous’ 4 lightsabers were no match for Obi-Wan, however, as even while hanging off the edge looking into a pit of darkness, Kenobi remained cool and collected, and shot Grievous in the heart, causing him to burst into flames and combust. Yoda’s battle among the Wookies also brought some great action to the forefront as the droid army is dismantled by the Wookies and clones combined powers. Anakin’s adventure was far less enthralling, however the key points that we learned were important to know, I guess. We pretty much learn that Palpatine is a Sith Lord, and tries to get Anakin to join him so that he can prevent death.

At this point the storyline on Coruscant gets interesting as Anakin brings this information to Mace Windu, who then goes to confront Palpatine. Unable to sit back and wait, however, Anakin bursts in to find Windu with the upper hand on the chancellor. Deciding that he wants to be able to save his wife from the death that he has been envisioning, he saves Palpatine and it leads to the demise of Mace Windu. He vows allegiance to the dark side, and the chancellor decides that now is the time to go on the offensive against the Jedi. He declares himself as Emperor, and the Senate becomes the Empire who all cheer and applaud the idea of defeating the Jedi. He invokes order 66, in which the clones all turn on their Jedi leaders and murder them in cold blood. Anakin makes his way to the Jedi temple to take care of the younglings, and thus, only Obi-Wan and Yoda are able to escape. When the two regroup they decide that Obi-Wan is to go deal with Anakin (now appointed Darth Vader), while Yoda goes to defeat the Emperor.

In two of the greatest battles of all time, we cut between the OG’s of the force in Yoda and Palpatine battling using their immense skills with the force, and with the raw emotion and lightsaber skills displayed between Kenobi and Skywalker. Obi-Wan gets the high ground in his battle, and defeats Anakin by cutting off his remaining limbs. Can’t bearing to watch him suffer, he leaves him there to die on his own. Yoda is unable to finish off the Emperor and instead escapes to go back and find Kenobi. Padme gives birth to twins, and to keep them safe, they split them up. The girl (Leia) goes with General Organa and his wife, while the boy (Luke) is sent to live with Anakin’s family on Tattooine. Yoda declares that he has failed, and sends himself into exile, and gives Obi-Wan the task of keeping an eye on the boy to ensure his safety. Palpatine finds the nearly dead Anakin and reconstructs him into what we know as the Darth Vader of the original trilogy, and they set out to create the Death Star.

This isn’t a perfect movie by any means. The acting in many spots wasn’t great, some of the writing and dialogue was laughable (but not on purpose), but the good aspects of this movie really overcame all of the bad and made this into a great and exciting film. With the action and effects being as good as it was, I’m looking forward to seeing if this upward trend continues into the Disney films, or whether this should have been the end of a great franchise.