DVD Review: Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith
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::Movie review
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and the entire set of prequels for that matter, remind me a lot of the Wizard of Oz. I'm speaking of the actual Wizard here, not the story. You see, the Wizard was all about theatrics. He looked impressive, he looked intimidating, he looked all powerful. Behind the curtain, however, he was none of that.
I sort of feel like that now -- like I've peeked behind the curtain and discovered that it was all just illusion.
It's important to understand that I was 6 years old when Star Wars hit theaters in 1977 (there was no such thing as "A New Hope" back then and nothing anyone will ever say or do will convince me to think of Star Wars by that title). I was exactly the perfect age for the start of the saga. In fact, maybe I was pushing the edge of too old, because even at 12, when Return of the Jedi came out, I was sophisticated enough to see that it wasn't nearly at the same level as Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back.
The thing is, though, Star Wars has been a part of my consciousness for most of my life. It's one of a small handful of films that shaped my love of movies and made me realize that it just might be possible to realize the stuff in trapped inside my imagination.
So I was excited at the prospect of new Star Wars movies being made. Here was a set of films that defined the modern moviemaking era, and now we had a chance to return to that world. Not only that, but the improvements in technology made it possible for George Lucas to really unleash his own imagination.
And that's the trouble, I fear.
I mentioned in a previous review that watching one of the prequel films was kind of like having kid show you his room. That kid will blast you with item after item after item, never giving you any chance to absorb anything or catch your breath. By the time he's done, the shear spectacle of all of his toys are certainly impressive and overwhelming, but you really aren't sure what you've just seen.
With the original trilogy, Lucas was limited by technology. This forced him to deal more with the story and characters. Yet even by the third film, Return of the Jedi, you could see a shift happening as the special effects technology improved. Slowly, Lucas became more interested in what he could "show" us than what he could tell us.
The greatest piece of evidence comes from the so-called "Special Edition" versions of the films released in the 90's. The majority of the enhancements were not furthering the story, but rather just creating more distracting eye-candy. Does adding a shockwave around an explosion really help the drama of the moment? Do a few added windows to the interior sets of a cloud city really expand character development?
This brings us back to Revenge of the Sith, which is supposedly the culmination of everything that George Lucas has ever wanted to show us about the Star Wars universe. And apparently, all he wanted to show us was smoke and mirrors.
Take, for example, the climactic duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). This is supposed to be a passionate struggle between two best friends torn apart by circumstance and conflicting ideals. Instead, it's an exercise in choreography. We are presented with two people who have obviously trained amazingly hard for this performance, but in the process, all emotion has been bleached out of it. Compare this duel to the one between Luke and Vader in Return of the Jedi. That duel was raw and rough, but you believed that the characters had an emotional investment in the outcome. They swung at each other with passion. In Sith, you can almost hear the actors whispering their beats, "attack, attack, parry, spin, attack, jump, parry, attack..."
This, I think, is the problem with the entire prequel trilogy. The emotional investment is missing. The Phantom Menace had all of excitement of watching someone else play a video game, and Attack of the Clones was sluggish and bloated by political proselytizing. Yes, both films had some interesting moments, both were visually splendorous, and they certainly had some entertainment value, but neither held the magic found in the original trilogy. Throughout all of this, we were promised that the best was yet to come, that Episode III would be the realization of everything we'd come to hope for.
And instead of spectacular, we get spectacle. On the surface, Episode III is amazing and it's certainly a technological achievement. There are even some brief moments of genuine emotion. But overall, it has all the appearances of actors just going through the motions. Even the few standout performances, such as Ewan McGregor's spot-on portrayal of Obi-Wan, are nearly obscured by an overly thick plot that is bursting the seems of its 2-plus hour running time. Worse, I fear that when all is said and done, those who will be most disappointed are the dedicated Star Wars fans, who were hoping that Revenge of the Sith would tie up all of the loose ends, and instead of creating more contradictions.
In all fairness, Revenge of the Sith is easily the best of the prequel trilogy films. It seems clear that Lucas had a much better idea of the story he wanted to tell with this film, whereas The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones lacked focus. It's almost as if Lucas just didn't really know what to do with those first two films – he only knew he wanted a trilogy, with Revenge of the Sith being the third act.
Also, Lucas has not yet solved the problems of his virtual filmmaking techniques. His actors suffer from an astonishing lack of reaction to their surroundings. I'm not just talking about the acting, but also their physical bodies within the scenes. When it comes to matters of lighting, perspective and even the subtleties of focus, it just all seems off, which disconnects the actors from the visual splendors shown to the audience.
Compare Revenge of the Sith to Sin City , which was another film that almost entirely lacked real sets. The characters in Sin City really seemed to inhabit their worlds. In Revenge of the Sith, and all of the prequels for that matter, the characters remind me of those old Colorform playsets from when I was a kid. For readers too young to remember, Colorforms involved vinyl cutouts of various characters that you could "stick" to a background -- you could place the same characters on a variety of backgrounds in order to "tell" different stories. No matter what you did, those characters were never really a part of the picture.
I was impressed with Episode III the first time I saw it, much in the same way that Dorothy was impressed with the Wizard during their first meeting. But now I feel like I've seen behind the curtain and realized that for all of the noise and lights, there is a surprising lack of substance. It is entertaining, but I think that in a hundred years, the original trilogy will endure, while the prequels will only hold a position as an interesting experiment and a footnote in the Star Wars universe.
Still, despite its flaws, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is essentially review proof. It is Star Wars, after all, which means that some will love it, some will hate it, and never the twain shall meet. And then there are those like myself, who can appreciate the basic entertainment value the film holds, but who also wish it contained a bit more substance.
::Video
In Episode II, Lucas experimented with digial photography and most will agree that he achieved mixed results. The technology has improved by leaps and bounds since then. In comparison, Revenge of the Sith is stunning, but I'm still not certain that it's up to the standard of traditional film stock. Regardless, this transfer, taken from the digital master, is absolutely flawless. In fact, I would go so far to say that the film looks better on DVD than it did in theaters. Previously, the only other movies to reach this level of technical superiority were entirely CGI productions (although admitedly, Sith is very nearly just that).
Everything about this transfer is about as perfect as is possible with the DVD format and I saw no technical problems with the video at all.
::Audio
One of my favorite things about the Star Wars films is the sound design by Ben Burtt. He has a knack for creating stunningly rich audio environments, and they deserve just the sort of dynamic presentation that this Dolby Digital 5.1 EX track provides. As with the video, this is a nearly flawless technical presentation.
If nothing else, Revenge of the Sith is a joy to look at and listen to.
::Special Features
As with the previous prequel films, this DVD set contains enough extra materials to fill a Star Destroyer.
Disc one features a full-length audio commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll, and Roger Guyett. Like the tracks for Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, this one appears to have been edited together from several different recording sessions. This actually works well, because it limits the amount of people talking over one another and nearly all of the track is lively.
Overall, this is a pretty solid commentary, although in all fairness, I did get a bit annoyed with McCallum's continual gushing over Lucas. I was surprised about the candidness regarding a few of the film's contraditions with the original trilogy, but some of the major plot holes are still left unexplained.
Disc two contains the bulk of materials, starting with 6 deleted scenes, the most anticipated of which will likely be Yoda's landing on Dagobah (of which I found underwhelming). Of these 6 scenes, the most interesting were those involving Padme (Natalie Portman) and her initiation into the fledgling Rebal Alliance.
There has been a lot of speculation surrounding the prequels and whether or not Lucas will revisit them with added scenes and enhanced visuals, as he did with the original trilogy. For a telling clue, be sure to watch the introduction to the Exiled to Dagobah scene and listen for Rick McCallum's comments.
Moving on, undeniably, the best extra feature, and in fact the best part of this DVD, is the Within a Minute documentary. I still believe that "The Beginning" from The Phantom Menace remains as the single best making-of documentary out there, and the standard by which all others will be compared. Within a Minute comes in a damn close second.
The premise of this documentary is a complete examination of everything that goes into the making of less than one minute of film from Revenge of the Sith. In this case, it is 49 seconds of the final lightsaber duel. Everything is covered here, from Lucas starting with the script, to the guys in accounting, to the caterers, to post production. It's a rare and fascinating insight into the massive scale of effort that goes into making a film.
Next up is The Chosen One featurette, which is a quick look at the saga of Darth Vader. Essentially, this Lucas' way of bringing everyone up to speed on the story of Vader.
Then we move on to It's All For Real: The Stunts of Episode III, which is a nice, brief look at the action elements of the film, with a focus on the lightsaber fighting.
Prior to the release of Episode III, Starwars.com hosted a series of web documentaries, 15 in all, and they are all included here. These little featuettes, they all run around or under 10 minutes, cover a wide range of topics, from art department production, to costuming, to specific character highlights (such as one episode all about Ian McDiarmid's portrayal of Palpatine/Sidious), so there is something here for everyone.
Keeping with the tradition of the other two sequels, the music video for A Hero Falls is included. While light years better than Across the Stars from Attack of the Clones, it still comes in second to Duel of the Fates from Phantom Menace.
Rounding things up are trailers, TV spots, production photo galleries, and video game previews.
::Bottom Line
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith supposedly concludes the theatrical Star Wars saga. Will this hold true? Who knows? Lucas claims he's finished, but he also once claimed to have 9 films worth of story. However things turn out, one thing remains true and that is the simple fact that money and technology aren't the keys to a great movie. The first two Star Wars films ever made, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back were the most raw in their technical achievements, and yet remain as the strongest and most compelling films in the entire saga.
The entire experience of the prequels, and Revenge of the Sith specifically, leaves me with mixed feelings. On certain levels, the films work. And yet, they also fail on many important ones. Ultimately, these films are meant to be character-driven and when that fact is placed second to the special effects, the result is what I like to think of as Chinese Food Cinema -- you're given 2 hours of entertainment, but when those end credits roll, you feel a bit hungry for a better story.
Buy Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith at DVDEmpire.com
| Movie |  |
3 / 5 |
| Video | |
5 / 5 |
| Audio | |
4.5 / 5 |
| Extras | |
4 / 5 |
| Family Friendly | |
2.5 / 5 |
| This is easily the darkest of the Star Wars films. While still a "family movie" at its heart, smaller kids will be disturbed by the scenes involving the killing of the jedi and the end of the Obi-Wan/Vader duel. | ||
| Overall | |
3.5 / 5 |
- Robert Wurth, ©2005
::Technical Specs
Studio:
Fox Home Entertainment
Year of Theatrical Release:
2004
Disc Format:
1 single-sided, Dual Layer
Image Format:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:
2.35:1
Region Encoding:
1 (North America)
Sound Format:
Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 (pro logic)
Running Time:
140 minutes
Director:
George Lucas
Stars:
Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson
MPAA Rating:
PG-13
Disc Supplements:
- Feature length commentary with George Lucas, Rick McCallum and crew
- Within a Minute documentary
- The Chosen One featurette
- It's All For Real: The Stunts of Episode III featurette
- Deleted Scenes
- 15 Web Documentaries
- A Hero Falls music video
- Poster and Print gallery
- Production Photo Gallery
- Trailers and TV spots
- Video game previews
