wAntAn productions

I've just gotten home from watching the purportedly final Star Wars movie. I'm kind of lost now because hell... there are no more Star Wars movies! Well at least that's what director George Lucas tells us. I wouldn't mind another installment though. I've also read that there's a TV series coming up to bridge the events between episodes III and IV so there's more hope for Star Wars junkies.

What follows is my attempt to review the movie. Don't read on if you don't want spoilers :)

First thing's first. For anyone who's watched the original trilogy this movie will hold no surprises for you. Everything you expect to happen happens. Episode III is at its core the story of Anakin Skywalker's transformation to Darth Vader.

Episode III connects both trilogies together in obvious and subtle ways. The most obvious one being Darth Vader's appearance. We also get to see the birth of the Skywalker twins ( Luke and Leia in case you didn't know ), Yoda's decision to become a hermit, Obi Wan delivering Luke to his Uncle, Bail Organa and his wife keeping care of Leia on Alderaan and heck even Chewbacca and Grand Moff Tarkin makes an appearance. Tarkin's appearance was a real surprise to me. It's not Peter Cushing playing the role ( he's been dead for some time ) but that person they hired to play him was a good doppelganger.

The terrible acting and dialog that bugs the prequels is back in its third installment. I'm not sure who's more deserving of the Wooden Actors Guild awards ( which awarded a life time achievement award to Keanu Reeves last year ); Hayden Christensen or Natalie Portman. Not too sure of Hayden but Natalie has definitely done better work in other movies. Their on screen romance is forced and unbelievable.

On the other hand I would really love it if someone gave an Academy Award for best supporting actor to Yoda ( or maybe just Frank Oz ). I never once understood the hype about Gollum from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Ring movies being called the most amazing digital actor ever created but Yoda in this movie is amazing. He's extremely lifelike and at no point in the movie do you feel that he's a terrible CG character with the exception of his hair which looks much like silk. Best of all he wields his light saber in this movie against Darth Sidious ( the emperor from the original trilogy ) but the battle is far too short though. More on this battle later.

Industrial Light and Magic have done a tremendously good job with the special effects in this movie. I doubt there will be any movie topping the realism of the effects in Episode III anytime soon. The showcase piece of this movie is the final duel between Anakin and his mentor Obi Wan set in the perpertually erupting volcano planet, Mustafar. However there are some parts where the CG is painfully hideous. Most indoor shots set in the capitol planet Coruscant look like they were produced for PC games with composited actors circa 1997. Luke and Leia in Obi Wan's arms during the delivery was an obvious Copy and Paste job.

Besides Anakin and Obi Wan's light saber battle I would also have liked to see Darth Sidious duke it out with Yoda much longer. Maybe I didn't understand this part of the movie very well but it seemed to me that Yoda just chickened out of the fight with the emperor and decided to lead a life of exile in Dagobah... which makes no fricking sense! Why would Yoda just flee when his skills are evenly matched with the emperor's. It would have made sense if Yoda had the crap beat out of him but that's not the case. Basically in the movie, what happens is Yoda takes a fall and runs the hell away... that's all!

There's one more rant I want to get off before I go sleep... does anyone else notice how ineffective the villians are in the prequels? Basically we were introduced to 4 villians, Darth Maul ( a personal favourite when Episode I was released ), Darth Tyrannus aka Count Dooku, General Grievous and Darth Sidious aka Chancellor Palpatine. NONE of them had the effect that Darth Vader had. I bet most casual moviegoers would not even remember Darth Maul by now. Count Dooku got an okay treatment in the movies but he dies early on in Episode III. I had high hopes that General Grievous would be a formidable villian but nope... he's not good enough to do the light sabre tango with Obi Wan for more than 5 minutes.

Alright sleepy now... going to cut short the review. Despite its flaws, Episode III is very much worth watching if only for a sense of closure. Good nite :)