Revenge of the Sith

After watching the film last night, I can't help but thinking that George Lucas made a big mistake. Because this film does so much to set the scene for the remaining 3 movies, it effectively "orphaned" the previous two. The connection between The Phantom Menace and The Attack of the Clones with the following movies is tenuous in the extreme.

In an alternative universe, Lucas could have comfortably made Revenge of the Sith the first movie in the series. Revenge covers all the ground that needed to be covered - it introduced the Evil Empire and all the main characters: showed the construction of the Death Star and as a film in its own right you can go to see it without needing to watch movies I and II. Importantly, it set the stage for the good versus evil fights that served movies IV - VI so well. Even more crucially, it created one of the real central characters of the entire movie series: Darth Vader. I refer of course to the "shhh-huuuuh" Darth Vader, not the adolescent "oh, I hate the Jedis because they don't let me do ANYTHING" Darth Vader. By making this movie the first one in the series, an atmosphere of new exploration could have been created. With the stories of Luke, Leah and Vader out of the way, Lucas would have had greater freedom to develop new story lines using the characters he developed in his earlier movies. The fans, old and new, would have loved it. Isn't hindsight such a great thing though?

Despite this being the third film, it really came across to me as the last one. To the uninitiated, watching all movies from I to VI in sequence will come across as slightly incongruous. Star Wars IV, in reality, has all the hallmarks of a movie designed to be the first in the series. It set the scene, introduced the characters and posed questions that were answered in the later movies. Star Wars III leaves no questions unanswered. If you had never watched the movies before, and then decided to watch all 6 films in sequence, then the announcements that "I am your father", "There is another one" and "She is your sister" seem redundant. Sure, we knew all that from Revenge, you will bound to say.

Anyhow - this is a good film, and I wouldn't hesitate to see it again. There is a real story here, plenty of action and there are some genuine innovations. General Grevious is a marvellous character, especially when wielding 4 light sabres. The production values are as high as any movie I have ever seen. Artistically, I couldn't fault it. The interior decorator can come around to my house any time. The inevitably cringeworthy Anakin-Amidala scenes were brief enough not to spoil my enjoyment of the film, and Yoda (is it just me, or does he not look a bit like a small, green version of Samuel L?) steals the show. Councillor Palpatine is munificently evil - I can't imagine buying a used Hyundai from the man, much less allowing him to become supreme emperor, but there you go. Nowt as strange as folk.

So, we reach the end of the Star Wars epic, and to me I am sorry to see it happen. Star Wars had a huge effect on me when I was a gangly 9 year old. It launched an interest in astronomy and space, something that I have retained to the present day. A milestone has been reached and for me, it ended on a high note.