Year: 2005Film: Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
Box Office Gross: $380,262,555
Awards: Hayden Christensen won a Razzie for worst supporting performance
Actors: Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Christopher Lee, Anthony Daniels, Frank Oz
I didn't intend to review 2005 and 2006 back to back, but this year's movie was on TV in the past week and I was able to tape it rather than review from memory. The movie that linked the new Star Wars trilogy with the old was hugely anticipated, as it was hopefully going to show how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. It starts with Obi-wan and Anakin trying to rescue the Chancellor and defeat General Grievous (a coughing robot leader). They do rescue the Chancellor, but Anakin is told to kill Count Dooku rather than prosecute him. Anakin starts to go over to the dark side and follow more and more of Chancellor Palpatine's (Darth Sidious) evil plans. Of course along the way we find out that Anakin's secret marriage to Padme has produced a child (children). They can't tell anyone or Anakin will get in trouble with the Jedi Council and Padme might get kicked out of the senate. Unfortunately, Anakin keeps having nightmares that Padme dies in childbirth and becomes obsessed with finding enough power to prevent that from happening, all leading to becoming Darth Sidious' apprentice and being known as Darth Vader. He has to initiate killing all the Jedi to remove the threat to the Republic. He kills lots of kids and eventually has to fight Obi-wan to the death, and he nearly dies in a lava field. The Emperor saves him, and gives him new arms and legs and such and the breathing mask that made him the Darth Vader we all know and love.
Overall, this movie doesn't disappoint as part of the series. It's leaps and bounds better than Episode 1, and though it doesn't quite reach the level of the original trilogy, it's close. The major problem I have with it is still Hayden Christensan. He's a dreadful actor throughout the movie. He doesn't play either the loving husband and future father nor the power hungry Sith with anything approaching real emotion. Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson and Jimmy Smits do a good job with occasionally schticky dialogue. Natalie Portman also suffers trying to act opposite Christensen and it makes her emotion seem overdone. Oh well, it was still a good movie and worth watching. There's a moment where a robot kicks R2D@ and he falls over. It's just a tiny little scene, but cracks me up every time.
2 comments:
I actually like the new trilogy, flawed as they may be.
My biggest gripe was always George Lucas' words coming out of Hayden Christiansen's mouth.
...*sigh* oh, what could have been.
I liked the new trilogy as well, but I'm pretty satisified with using characters I love in almost any new situation.
This movie held up much better than I expected with rewatching.
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