Seeing Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was quite an experience. First off, I loved it. I recognize its flaws, but I think the movie rocks in spite of them.
People who know me know that I’m a huge fan. (I’ve subscribed to the fan club magazine for 15 years.) That puts me in a somewhat awkward position when they say “What’d you think?” Where do I begin? I was even mentally blocked as to how to write about it here.
At first, I didn’t want to give away too much to folks who hadn’t seen it. With the movie in release for a couple weeks now, I feel safer posting “spoilers” in a detailed analysis.
I guess I should start at the beginning.
For the last two prequels, I went to midnight shows at the THX theater in Pittsford. I planned to do the same this time. Bought my ticket ahead of time, then got there about 11:30. No standing in line, but it was early enough to get a seat. It turned out the multiplex had several theaters screening the film, so I didn’t get the THX one. Oh well. I probably don’t have the training to tell the difference between that and DTS anyway.
Attending a midnight premiere of a Star Wars film is really something. There’s a few people in costume, others waving light sabers — you’ve seen them on TV. Everyone there really WANTS to like the movie. They applaud the Lucasfilm logo and the opening bars of the John Williams score. I’m right there with them. I get shivers seeing the giant yellow titles on the screen.
Interestingly, the crowd is more vocal about the clunky moments, too. There was more derisive laughter over bad lines and acting than at an afternoon screening I attended a few days later. I’m not sure what that means — perhaps the fanboy demographic is more cynical than a general audience would be.
Back to the movie. It begins with the standard introductory crawl, which describes the kidnapping of Chancellor Palpatine by the Separatist forces. This makes me grin, because anyone who’s been paying attention knows that Palpatine probably arranged for his own kidnapping, as he commands the Separtists through his guise as Darth Sidious. (To casual fans and young children, this may not be common knowledge, but they’ll find out by the end of the movie.) Secondly, I like the fact that we join the story in media res. We don’t see the kidnapping — we join the story during the rescue attempt. This has been Lucas’ approach from the beginning. The movies use the structure of classic serials. A viewer must assume that there’s stuff that happened before, and just try to catch up.
Bongo drums! The music during this space battle is very different from what we’ve heard in previous episodes. That’s fine, we’ve never seen an all out droid vs. starship fight before either. The action here is designed to overwhelm the audience immediately. There’s so much to take in, and it all moves really fast. Some nice design work here: ships that are forerunners of X-wings, and the Jedi ships are a cross between the wedge shaped fighters from episode II and the TIE fighters from eps IV through VI. They “scream” like the TIE fighters, too.
Once onboard Grievous’ ship, we get some really fun action and humor. R2D2 is super-charged — he’s quick, agile, and funny. Obi-Wan and Anakin have a real camaraderie. They’re getting the job done, but not without a few mishaps. This section reminded me of the teamwork among the characters in Return of the Jedi. It’s nice to see the teacher and student’s positive relationship before it all goes south.
When the Jedi meet up with Palpatine and then duel Dooku, we have an example of “doubling” that Lucas is so fond of. Palpatine sits in a very familiar throne, watching the fight, drinking it all in. The stakes are the same as in Return of the Jedi: he wants a new apprentice to kill the old. Behind him plays a space battle, a result of his own political machinations.
General Grievous is a challenging character. Right off the bat, his voice and mannerisms put you off. He has a stooped walk, a strange accent, and that cough! What’s up with a coughing robot? It’s made apparent later that he’s part organic, thus explaining his personality quirks. Without providing this backstory first, Lucas risks distracting the audience. After a few minutes, however, I loved the character. I was expecting him to be relatively minor, perhaps killed off before we get to know him, like Darth Maul was in episode I. Thankfully, Grievous is incredibly fun and interesting, especially in his scenes later in the film. The character also serves to set up the concept of cyborg beings. Grievous is probably 90% droid, 10% creature. If you can believe that, it’s not much of a leap when Anakin is resurrected as the Vader we know — “more machine than man.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
But first, here’s a message from Bill Murray:
STAR WARS, LOUNGE STYLE
Star Wars
Nothing but Star Wars
Gimme those Star Wars
Don’t let ’em end!Ah, Star Wars
If they should bar wars
Please let these Star Wars
Stay!And hey!
How ’bout that nutty Star Wars bar?
Can you believe all the creatures in there?
And hey!
Darth Vader in that black and evil mask
Did he scare you as much as he scared me?Star Wars
Those near and far wars
Star Wars!Bill Murray sings on SNL! Download the MP3
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Mike, I thought the same thing about Grievous, but oddly enough, the Clone Wars cartoons that air on The Cartoon Network (and also at the Star Wars website) actually sort of explain his cough. It’s pretty cool and for fanboys like us, Revenge actually mentions a lot that goes on in the toons.