Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith

UK Release Date. 19 May 2005
Certification. 12A
Running Time. 2 hours 20 mins
Director. George Lucas
Cast. Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman.
Rating. 54%

Review.

Many of the same criticisms of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones can be levelled aStar Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith. The prequel trilogy remains a massive disappointment, but whatever the flaws, the final 45 minutes of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith demonstrates at least director, George Lucas knew where he wanted to end up. 

The climax of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith was the storyline all Star Wars fans had been waiting for. The demise of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) culminates in the lava fields of Mustafar, as master and padawan confront each other in perhaps the most impressive lightsaber duel to date. The end result sees a grisly metamorphosis and dramatic final emergence of the iconic black-carapaced Darth Vader.

However, the shortcomings greatly outweigh the highlights. Hayden Christensen's performance remains unconvincing, and Anakin Skywalker's journey to the dark side is implausible. The character arc is ridiculous. The audience is to believe that Anakin is suddenly comfortable slaughtering Jedi younglings and choking his pregnant wife, Padmé (Natalie Portman).

In addition, The Jedi Order - supposedly masters of The Force - who act as powerful guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, but in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith too many of the Jedi Knights are relegated to stock characters, reminiscent of red-shirted, landing party members from the original Star Trek TV series.

In conclusion, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith is certainly the best of the misguided prequel trilogy. But is that really saying anything?

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