System 13

Last night the wife and I watched Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Yes, I know – we’re 3 years behind, it having came out in 2005. I’m pretty lax about watching movies when they first come out, largely because 1) I’m not crazy about going to the movies, and 2) they all come out on DVD, which is either far cheaper than going to the movies, or even free, if I can borrow the DVD from a friend or family member – which is exactly what I did with Revenge of the Sith. Anyway, moving along…

I quite enjoyed it, which was truthfully quite a surprise. After the first couple of prequels, I was not expecting Revenge of the Sith to amount to much. I was severely let down by The Phantom Menace – I thought it was just bad, all around. Jar Jar was awful, the kid playing Anakin couldn’t act, his mother giving him up, just like that, to go help the Jedi, the build-up of Darth Maul just for him to have one line of dialogue and then get lopped in half never to be seen again… I could go on like this for quite a while. I thought Lucas really dropped the ball with Episode 1. A few weeks ago I watched Attack of the Clones (also borrowed!), and thought that while it was better than The Phantom Menace, it still didn’t live up to the first three movies. Lots of cool effects, yes, but it still didn’t really grab me.

Revenge of the Sith did grab me, however. While some of the acting was still a little questionable – Hayden Christensen, I look to you, good sir – the movie was all around quite enjoyable. One aspect of it that I really liked were the hints at what was to come in the later movies in regards to ships³³ I loved seeing the Republic attack cruisers, which would later become the Imperial Star Destroyers; the ARC-170 starfighters which looked quite similar to the X-Wing. Seeing that stuff really made the whole thing feel more like the older films. I actually shouted with glee a few times when I caught such hints (I know, I’m a geek). One in particular that I remember? The TIE-fighter sound. It got a pretty big smile out of me.

I also thought the politics of the movie were pretty interesting. In particular, Chancellor Palpatine’s continued use of the emergency powers granted to him by the Senate (in Attack of the Clones) caught my eye. There’s been another Chancellor who gained similar power through legal means, except his name was Adolf; Hitler became more or less dictator of Germany via the Enabling Act of 1933. Apparently I’m not the only one to have noticed the similarity; it’s mentioned on the Attack of the Clones Wikipedia page.

Definitely glad I got around to watching it; for a while, I had pretty much abanonded Star Wars due to The Phantom Menace. One outstanding gripe with Revenge of the Sith, though: Yoda could have looked better. Revenge of the Sith came out three years after The Two Towers, and Gollum still looks more realistic. In most shots, I thought Yoda looked blatantly CGI-ish. Oh well – still a great movie.

(One last thing: if you’ve not seen the Star Wars Databank, do check it out. A Star Wars geek’s heaven.)3

1. There’s a good chance there were such hints in the other two prequels, but I don’t remember them. That’s not saying much, though – the only ship-type I remember from The Phantom Menace is that sleek, banana-yellow thing from Naboo.333

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