Revenge Of The Sith is a tragedy, all right. A tragedy that it took this long for the prequel trilogy to find its groove. As I watched it, I finally realized what the first two were missing. Star Wars. Think about it - The Phantom Menace depicted a relatively trivial Trade Federation affair that just happened to have the Sith involved. This would tangentially lead into the events in Attack Of The Clones, but even there the Separatists are merely political until the final Geonosis battle. This trilogy took two movies to actually get to the Star Wars, a huge error in George Lucas's judgment.
As such, Revenge bears the brunt of its predecessors' mistakes, but is nonetheless able to deliver a thoroughly compelling story and make us finally care about these characters as the dystopian Empire beckons in the distance. The idea of corrupted democracy, of our own law turning against us is fundamentally frightening for anyone, and it's a concept that the more black and white original trilogy never touched on.
The first act of the film puts us right into familiar territory - baddies have a MacGuffin, so the heroes get on the move. Compare it to the start of the previous films, which were "ambassadors coming to discuss trade dispute" and "Senator Amidala arriving to vote". It's punchy, fun, well-written, there's good banter between the characters, and a lightsaber duel to boot. That whole first act is like a mini-Star Wars film in its own right. So finally, we're thoroughly invested.
Then we're forced down to Coruscant and it's here when the tension starts building as we learn of the differences between the Chancellor and the Jedi Council. That tension, and the wild card that is Anakin, keeps Revenge focused. And we know it will snap eventually and rain terrible hellfire on our heroes. So that adds an imaginary ticking clock to the film.
That being said, Revenge is not without a flaw: there's some serious confusion in Anakin's motivations for turning to the dark side. It's meant to be two-fold - on one side, he simply wants the power to save Padme's life. But on the other, we're also led to believe that Anakin's been convinced the Jedi are plotting to take over the Republic. Which isn't really supported by what we're seeing onscreen.
Anakin finding out that the Chancellor is a Sith Lord should surely be the end for Palpatine's moral arguments, right? I mean, even if Anakin believed the Sith and the Jedi weren't that different and that the Sith's passionate approach to the Force was the way to go, what part of his brain thinks that killing younglings isn't evil, but trying to assassinate a Sith Lord is? Not to mention, towards the end of the film, Anakin himself proposes overthrowing the Chancellor. It boils what seems to be set up to be a very clever subversion of morals down to "the dude's just gone power mad", which is a shame.
I feel like a good way to fix this would've been to have Anakin ultimately just embrace the ways of the Sith, and declare them better than the Jedi, not rant about how the Jedi betrayed him in some way.
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Ewan McGregor is the real stand-out of this film. After a fairly forgettable performance in Episode I, and a grouchy one in Episode II, here he gets to be the charming and wise Jedi we all know and love, and put his own stamp on the role(McGregor basically plays himself, but it works). He's very charismatic here, and it's no surprise the fans are still hankering for his return to the part all these years later.
Hayden Christensen, whilst still not great, at least has something reasonable to chew on and clearly tries to make us care about him and Anakin's complex feelings of fear, betrayal, jealousy and confusion. It's a far cry from the whining creep he was in the last film. At the very least, he does his job well enough. It could've been an iconic performance had a superior actor done it, but Christensen doesn't have to be ashamed of his acting here at all.
Ian McDiarmid gives his second legendary performance as the Emperor(one hopes for a third in Rise Of Skywalker). The fact that he's completely fascinating to the audienec both as the reserved, dry, kindly Chancellor and the megalomaniacal lord of evil is a testament to his talent as an actor. McDiarmid is nothing short of brilliant, and rightfully holds the title of one of the most iconic villain performers of all time.
Christopher Lee's appearance is short, but he makes the most of it, and Dooku's death at least contributes massively to the birth of Vader. It also allows to spend more time with Matthew Wood's wonderfully fearsome and irascible General Grievous, adding one more brilliant villain to Star Wars's ouevre.
Natalie Portman's Padme doesn't get as much to do here as in the previous films, and people have rightfully laughed off the unnecessary death by "losing the will to live"(though I should point out it's not too unrealistic in a fantasy environment). She manages to convey her bitterness and terror over seeing democracy's death well enough, but mostly she's just sad and confused around Anakin, which could be compelling, but Portman doesn't really show the character's inner depth much.
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Whilst the greenscreen and CGI are still present in the same quantity, they are massively improved from what we saw in Attack Of The Clones. Most of what we see still feels more or less real, most notably the work done on Grievous, who is still a very impressive figure.
The thing I remembered the most about this movie were the glorious music by John Williams(possibly his best in the series) and the impeccable lightsaber duels(definitely the best in the series). The showdown between Anakin and Obi-Wan is as amazing and spectacular now as it was back in 2005. It's a highlight of the entire franchise, and one of my favourite action scenes of all time, if not the favourite.
The editing is also far superior to that of the previous two films. Not only is it not bad, but there's some terrific moments, like the cut from Padme's warm, inviting hospital room to the dark, cold one Vader is trapped in.
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Revenge Of The Sith is an exhilarating, gripping experience and remains one of the best Star Wars films regardless of the stigma surrounding the prequel trilogy. It's no surprise that the tone and characterisation seen in the popular Clone Wars series is almost entirely based off of this movie.
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