Tag: Count Dooku

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith Review

*Caution: This review contains spoilers for both the prequel and original Star Wars trilogies. But if you don’t know the story of Star Wars by this point, well, I don’t know what to tell you.*

By the time 2005 came around, fans were burnt out on the Star Wars prequel trilogy. The disappointment of The Phantom Menace was massive enough, but when Attack of the Clones fell flat and two-thirds of the trilogy left fans sour, the excitement had extinguished. Combine that with the fact that the infinitely superior Lord of the Rings trilogy had been released around the same time, and expectations for the final installment of the Star Wars prequels were low.

When Revenge of the Sith was released in May of 2005, many were surprised to find it a marked improvement over its two predecessors, with some even comparing it favorably to the original trilogy. The latter may be a bit of a stretch, however. Revenge of the Sith, despite having a clearer focus and better narrative than the preceding prequels, still suffers from a number of their same faults.

Set three years after the events of Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith begins in the midst of the Clone Wars. Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) are sent on a mission to rescue Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who has been kidnapped by Separatist forces.

The two Jedi infiltrate the flagship of General Grievous (Mathew Wood), a cyborg leader of the Seperatists’ droid armies, where they once again encounter Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). The Jedi do battle with the Sith lord, and during the fight Obi-Wan is knocked unconscious, when Anakin manages to disarm Count Dooku in a most literal fashion. With his opponent defeated, Anakin – at the behest of the chancellor – decapitates Count Dooku (in a little over the thirteen-minute mark, making Dooku yet another underutilized Star Wars villain). Anakin rescues Obi-Wan and Palpatine, but Grievous manages to escape.

When the Jedi return to Coruscant – the capital planet of the Republic – Anakin is confronted by his (secret) wife, Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), who reveals she is pregnant. The Jedi Council sends Obi-Wan Kenobi on a mission to track down Grievous, while Palpatine – who has become a dictator in all but name by this point – appoints Anakin as his personal representative and informant on the Jedi Council. Though the council allows Anakin to join them, they do not grant him the rank of Jedi Master. Distrusting the chancellor, the Jedi Council then assigns Anakin to report Palpatine’s actions back to them. All the while, Anakin begins to have visions of Padmé dying during childbirth, similar to the visions he had of his mother before her death.

With his mentor Obi-Wan gone, his faith in the Jedi Order shaken by the council’s distrust of his friend Palpatine and what he perceives as a lack of confidence in himself by his peers, as well as his nightmarish visions, Anakin is at a loss. It’s at this point that Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine reveals his secret to Anakin: he is the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious. And with his knowledge of the dark side of the Force, he may hold the power to prevent the death of Anakin’s beloved Padmé.

What’s great about Revenge of the Sith is that it’s a much-more focused movie than either of its preceding episodes, and it makes an honest-to-goodness attempt to get the series back to its roots, while also trying to make it more thematically mature. It isn’t always successful, mind you, but Revenge of the Sith’s attempts to recapture the magic of the original Star Wars trilogy shine through enough to make it a more worthwhile effort than either Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones.

The film opens with a genuinely exciting space battle, which is then followed by equally exciting scenes of lightsabers slashing through droids and, finally, the aforementioned duel with Count Dooku. It’s almost as if the film’s high-octane opening moments are a kind of apology on the part of George Lucas for the profuse amount of scenes involving debates that slowed down its two predecessors.

Granted, the political stuff is still present, but it doesn’t feel so needlessly in the way of the action and adventure the series is known for this time around. Naturally, Revenge of the Sith focuses on Palpatine’s master plan coming to fruition, and sees him ultimately dismantling the Galactic Republic and creating the Galactic Empire. It’s all necessary to the plot and never feels like it drags on this time around.

Of course, the big story at play here is the downfall of Anakin Skywalker and the birth of Darth Vader. The film takes a number of dark, dramatic turns, especially once Palpatine instructs the execution of the Jedi, with Anakin himself carrying out a good deal of it. Of all the Star Wars features, Revenge of the Sith remains the most (appropriately) bleak of the lot. There is, however, one major issue with the fall of Anakin and the rise of Vader…

Hayden Christensen still can’t act!

Okay, so Christensen’s performance may have improved marginally since Attack of the Clones, but it still puts a hamper on what would otherwise be a well told story. And no, Natalie Portman still couldn’t be bothered to put in the effort. So once again, the emotional core of the prequel trilogy still falls dead-flat because the relationship at the center of the story just doesn’t click.

“Hello there!”

Thankfully, the acting is better elsewhere, with Ewan McGregor still holding things together, and Frank Oz’s vocal performance as Yoda is still memorable. On the interesting side of things, Ian McDiarmid seems to completely ham it up this time around. I don’t mean that as a negative, though. There’s a comical, intentional sense of overacting from McDiarmid in this third prequel outing that makes this film’s depiction of Palpatine feel different from his other appearances. I don’t know if it was the reception of the two preceding films that lead McDiarmid to throw caution to the wind, or if he just decided that since this film saw the transition of Chancellor Palpatine to the evil Emperor we first saw in Return of the Jedi, that he should do something different with it. Either way, the end results of McDiarmid’s take on the character in Revenge of the Sith are inarguably entertaining.

The film is also highlighted with a number of fun action sequences. I’ve already addressed the first fifteen or so minutes with its space battles and lightsaber duels, but Revenge of the Sith features a number of other, equally entertaining action scenes. Obi-Wan’s showdown with General Grievous, though admittedly silly at times, is a lot of fun. And the final two lightsaber duels – one between Obi-Wan and the newly-turned Darth Vader, and the other between the two most powerful Force wielders in the series, Yoda and Darth Sidious – are among the best in the franchise (though Yoda welding a lightsaber still looks a bit silly, at least his fight ends up being more Force-driven this time around).

It’s because of these elements – as well as a captivating last few minutes that sees the events of the original trilogy set in motion  (Owen and Beru Lars taking in baby Luke as Obi-Wan goes into hiding on Tatooine; the haunting image of Palpatine, Vader and Governor Wilhuff Tarkin overseeing construction of the Death Star) – that elevate Revenge of the Sith well above the other two entries of the prequel trilogy. With that said, Episode III isn’t quite a return to form.

Along with Christensen and Portman’s acting (or lack thereof), George Lucas’s infamous writing rears its ugly head once again in a very bad way. Though we are mercifully spared of any monologues about sand, some moments that should be dead serious can come across as unintentionally humorous because of the writing. When Obi-Wan confronts his former friend on the fiery planet of Mustafar, the former Anakin Skywalker proclaims that “if you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.” To which Obi-Wan retorts “Only a Sith deals an absolute.” (a statement which, in itself, is very much an absolute). Moments later, when Obi-Wan tries to reason with Anakin that “Chancellor Palpatine is evil” the latter comes back with “From my point of view the Jedi are evil!” Well yeah, we figured that, Anakin. If he believe Palpatine were evil and still believed the Jedi were good, why would he be doing what he’s doing at this point? The audience is smart enough to pick these things up without having the characters literally shout them, George…

“Behold, I have another set of arms! Now excuse me as I slowly stab at you in the same spot with all four arms, which surely won’t make it easy for you to cut off my hands or anything.”

Yet another drawback that’s carried over from the past two episodes is the weird “villain of the week” scenario with the antagonists. Count Dooku was built up pretty strongly in Attack of the Clones before he actually showed up in the film’s third act. Though his screen time was minimal, we assumed he’d have a bigger role this time around. But as mentioned, he’s cleared out of the picture before we even hit the fifteen-minute mark. Then we have General Grievous, a character who is introduced as the “action villain” of the movie, who then spends most of his time on-screen running away from the action. And when he finally does battle with Obi-Wan, revealing a second set of arms, he acts like a total doofus and gets his extra limbs lopped off almost instantly, and is then abruptly killed a few moments later.

What’s weird is that George Lucas has admitted he wanted to go this route with the villains in the prequels. But that begs the question as to why? The same series that brought us arguably the most iconic movie villain ever in Darth Vader suddenly decides its villains aren’t worth developing into memorable characters? I don’t get it.

This goes back to a mistake in The Phantom Menace that, if avoided, could have benefitted the entire prequel trilogy greatly: Darth Maul shouldn’t have died in his first appearance, and should have been in all three prequels! Maul had a great look that set him apart from Darth Vader, and had all the makings of being an iconic villain in his own right. It would have made for a more fluid narrative if Maul – the villain who killed Qui-Gon, a man Anakin idolized – had been the one destined to fall to Anakin Skywalker as Palpatine’s apprentice.

I like Count Dooku, and Christopher Lee is always a bonus, but he never really seemed like a villain who needed to be a Sith, and was seemingly only made into one because Maul got killed off and every villain in the prequels needed to use lightsabers apparently. Plus, it kind of undermines Palpatine’s determination to turn Anakin to the dark side if the Dark Lord of the Sith goes through apprentices like they’re going out of fashion. And why does General Grievous even exist other than to have a new “badass looking bad guy” after Maul and Jango Fett bit the dust? The prequels would have felt more cohesive if they featured at least one consistent villain of their own.

“Don’t get me started on why Palpatine’s lightning morphs his face when Force lightning did nothing remotely like that to Luke in Return of the Jedi. And really don’t get me started on why the Force Lightning makes Palpatine temporarily look like a Who from the live-action Grinch movie.”

Once again, the visual effects are a bit of a mixed bag. I don’t have a problem with CGI, but there’s something about it here in the prequel trilogy that feels overdone. Some of the creatures and locations look great (like Mustafar, which is essentially the final level of a Super Mario game turned into a planet), but others don’t hold up too well (the Clone Troopers don’t look any better here than in Attack of the Clones). On the bright side, the soundtrack is an improvement over that of its immediate predecessor, and features some of the more memorable tracks in the series, which is saying something.

Sadly, there are bigger demons of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones that are still at play in Revenge of the Sith. Namely, the same kind of strange creative decisions that alter the original trilogy, including some glaring plot holes.

The biggest inconsistency still being why C3-P0 is not remembered by anyone by the time the original trilogy takes place. C3-P0 gets his memory wiped by the end of things, but that doesn’t explain why no one remembers him. This situation is made even stranger in Revenge of the Sith by the fact that R2-D2 does not get his memory erased.This essentially means R2 knows that Darth Vader is Luke’s father, that Leia is his sister, and knows pretty much everything else that’s happened up until now, but never tells anyone because reasons. So I guess R2 is retroactively the Galaxy’s biggest jerk for not telling Luke any of this.

Another unfortunate plot hole is made for Return of the Jedi. In Episode VI, Princess Leia remembers the little she can of her mother to Luke (remembering that she was “very beautiful, kind, but sad”). Except here, we find out that Padmé died about a minute after giving birth to Leia. So who knows how Leia remembers her mother – both in looks and personality -when she only saw her for a brief second as a newborn infant.

Normally, plot holes can be forgiven, but considering these three movies were long-gestating prequels to a well-established narrative, the fact that so many glaring plot holes for the original trilogy are created in the prequels gives the impression that George Lucas didn’t even re-watch his own movies to polish up the story and make a proper connection between trilogies.

To add insult to injury, we also get another instance of the Star Wars Galaxy feeling really, really small and condensed. It’s not as bad as Anakin building C3-P0, but it’s still a bit silly. This particular instance involves Yoda fighting alongside none other than Chewbacca on the Wookies’ homeworld of Kashyyyk. I can accept a cameo of Chewbacca during the fight, but when Yoda blatantly acknowledges him as an an old friend, it’s just another “wow, really?” moment.

“And there he is, the man himself: Darth Vader. I can’t imagine how they could ruin this moment… unless Darth Vader shouted “NO” in an overly dramatic fashion or something.”

Still, I have to admit that these elements aren’t nearly as bad as those featured in the past two films. But it would have been nice if Revenge of the Sith could have avoided these pitfalls, considering all the improvements it makes to its predecessors elsewhere.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith may not have completely redeemed the prequel trilogy, but at least it ended it on a (relatively) high note. It feels different from the other Star Wars films, due to its darker content, but it works in the end. If the entire movie were as good as the last few wordless minutes, Revenge of the Sith may have been one of the best Star Wars features. As it is, well, it’s the best of the prequels, anyway.

 

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Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones Review

*Caution: This review contains spoilers for both the prequel and original Star Wars trilogies. But if you honestly don’t know the story of Star Wars by this point, well, I don’t know what to tell you.*

After The Phantom Menace was released in 1999 to mass disappointment, the second installment of George Lucas’s Star Wars prequel trilogy had a lot to prove. Audiences held their breath for three years in anticipation whether Episode II would be a return to form for the beloved saga, or a continuing downward spiral following in the wake of The Phantom Menace.

2002 saw the release of Attack of the Clones, and while at the time it was considered an improvement over its immediate predecessor, it was still seen as an underwhelming installment in the Star Wars saga. In the years since, however, Attack of the Clones is often seen as the weakest entry in the entire series. It may feature less Jar-Jar than its predecessor, but Attack of the Clones frequently doubles down on all the other aspects fans despised about The Phantom Menace – from poor writing and flat-out bad acting to a garish overuse of CG and the creation of plot holes for the original trilogy – making Attack of the Clones fall short even of its immediate predecessor.

Set ten years after the events of Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones sees the Galactic Republic shaken by the separatist movement – a collection of different planets and factions throughout the Galaxy planning to separate from the Republic – orchestrated by former Jedi Master Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), who in turn is working under direct guidance of the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious. With the Separatists growing, the Galactic Republic is in debate over the creation of an army of their own, as the Jedi are too few in numbers to fight an entire war.

Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) is set to vote on the military creation act, but quickly becomes the target of multiple assassination attempts. Padmé is then placed under the protection of Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). Obi-Wan and Anakin thwart a subsequent assassination attempt, with Obi-Wan subduing the assassin who is then killed by her client – the bounty hunter Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) -before she can reveal his identity to the Jedi.

After some investigating, and consulting with old friend and restauranteur Dexter Jettster (voiced by Ronald Falk), Obi-Wan traces the attacks to the planet of Kamino. Obi-Wan is then sent to said planet for further investigation, while Anakin is to remain by Padmé’s side and escort her back to the planet of Naboo.

While on Kamino, Obi-Wan learns that Jango Fett has served as the basis for a clone army, apparently ordered by the Galactic Republic over ten years prior. Meanwhile, a romance begins to blossom between Anakin and Padmé, though disturbing visions of his mother’s fate on Tatooine leads Anakin back to his old home planet, where Anakin must confront tragedy in a way that will determine his allegiance in the Force.

All the while, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is gaining more and more power within the Republic, with senator Jar-Jar Binks (Ahmed Best) – though well-intentioned – being easily duped into granting the chancellor emergency powers, which eventually leads to the utilization of the clone army.

On the plus sides, Attack of the Clones has much less sub-plots going on than its predecessor. While The Phantom Menace often felt like it couldn’t decide which characters should be the focus at any given time, Attack of the Clones simplifies things a bit by being structured around Obi-Wan and Anakin’s respective plots, while occasionally taking a break to showcase the goings-on of the Jedi Council and Galactic Republic. Ewan McGregor remains a highlight, as does McDiarmid, while the Jedi Council’s promoted role gives Yoda (Frank Oz) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) more to do this time around. And the addition of Christopher Lee is definitely a plus, even if his character doesn’t really get a whole lot of screen time.

Unfortunately, those highlights are in limited supply. George Lucas seemingly listened to the complaints targeted towards Jar-Jar Binks – giving the bumbling Gungan considerably less screen time than in the previous film – but then seemed to have defiantly ignored the criticisms elsewhere in The Phantom Menace, and doubled down on them with his second go-around in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

“Find someone who looks at you the way Padmé looks…blankly into the abyss at any given moment.”

Anakin Skywalker may have been poorly-acted by Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace, but there’s a bit of leeway when it comes to criticizing bad child actors. But in casting Hayden Christensen as the older Anakin, George Lucas kept the spirit of bad acting alive and well in the series’ central character. Despite being an adult, Hayden Christensen’s acting is way worse than Jake Lloyd’s ever was. Natalie Portman also seems to not give a damn about putting any effort in her performance.

“I don’t ship it.”

To top it off, George Lucas’s writing abilities are at their most egregious here. George Lucas is infamous for his dialogue (to the point that the cast of the original Star Wars trilogy altered the script and birthed most of the series’ most memorable lines), but Attack of the Clones shows us what happens when George Lucas tries his hands at sappy romance, and then relies on Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman to deliver it. Good lord, does it ever provide the cringe!

This romance between Anakin and Padmé is supposed to be the emotional heart of the film, but at its best, it’s laughable. At its worst, it’s downright embarrassing (let us not speak of Anakin’s monologue about sand, or the very uncomfortable way he touches Padmé’s back immediately thereafter). Every time the film switches gears to Anakin and Padmé, it makes you count down the seconds until it switches back to good ol’ Obi-Wan and his far more entertaining, action-filled plot.

The visual effects of the film are also pretty inconsistent. While the inhabitants of Kamino still look impressive these seventeen years later, the clone troopers they create look much less believable, especially when they remove their helmets and we get glimpses of some uncanny valley Temuera Morrisons. Sadly, it was also here that George Lucas decided that Yoda should be just another CG creature in an overly CG world (The Phantom Menace has retroactively replaced its puppet with CG in re-issues, but in its original release, Yoda remained a practical effect). CG Yoda looked unconvincing even back in 2002, a point that was reinforced by the fact the same year brought us The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and properly introduced audiences to Gollum, an infinitely better CG character who still looks impressive today.

It’s not just bad writing and acting, and overly garish visual effects that rob Attack of the Clones of much of its potential charms, but also some questionable creative choices.

For example, it’s a fun idea in theory for Obi-Wan – a character audiences associated with wisdom and experience – seeking guidance with what amounts to a grizzled old diner operator in Dexter Jettster. It’s a fun little detail that, sometimes, even wizards need help from old friends. But the off-putting aspect of Dexter Jettster’s introduction is that his diner is, quite literally, a 1950’s American diner. I can kind of understand the joke Lucas was aiming for, but this is probably the one instance in the series in which the Star Wars universe doesn’t feel like the Star Wars universe. The ‘joke’ may have worked a lot better if Dexter’s diner looked retro within the context of the Star Wars universe. The “Star Wars equivalent” of a ’50s diner, if you will. Instead, it’s literally a 50s diner, but in Star Wars.

That’s probably the least offensive of Attack of the Clones’ wonkier creative choices though. This may be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but seeing Yoda wield a lightsaber and flip around the place in his duel with Count Dooku is far more silly than it is badass. It’s cool to see an entire army of Jedi going into battle, lightsaber’s ignited. But Yoda always seemed like he should be above physical combat. He’s the Jedi master. I can imagine him using the Force in battle when necessary, but trying to make him “cool” with all the flipping and sword-swinging, I don’t know. It just always seemed out-of-character.

Another problem comes when Anakin Skywalker avenges his mother Shmi (Pernillia August). Anakin rescues her from a tribe of Tusken Raiders, only for her to die in his arms. In his rage he slaughters every last Tusken Raider in the tribe, “Not just the men, but the women, and the children too!”

It makes sense from the perspective of Anakin’s downfall and eventual transformation into Darth Vader. But what makes this moment fall flat (aside from, y’know, Hayden Christensen) is that Anakin confesses his mass murder to Padmé, who reacts by… not doing anything, really. The man tells her he killed women and children, and she consoles him as if he were a kid who wrecked their new bike. I can buy that Padmé doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Anakin, but she never so much as questions Anakin’s character again, and everything is back to the same old grind afterwards. He murdered women and children! That’s kind of a red flag that, maybe, this guy’s not worth it, Padmé.

Additionally, much like his son Boba Fett in the original trilogy, and Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, Jango Fett follows the Star Wars tradition of underutilized villains. He probably has a bigger role in the story than his son did, I have to admit. But Jango Fett still falls victim to the series’ tendency of killing off a villain with all the potential in the world way too soon.

Now we get to Attack of the Clones’ single biggest piece of creative befuddlement. A plot hole so big it actually puts a damper on the original Star Wars film. The seeds for this atrocity were planted in The Phantom Menace, when it was revealed that Anakin Skywalker – Darth Vader himself – built C3-P0. Which is dumb. But now we find out that, after Anakin departed Tatooine, Watto sold Anakin’s mother to a man named Clieg Lars, who freed and eventually married her. She then became the stepmother to Clieg’s son Owen (Joel Edgerton). But when Shmi Skywalker joined the Lars family, she wasn’t alone, and she brought C3-P0 with her. So C3-P0 has, for years by the point he’s reintroduced in Attack of the Clones, been the Lars family’s protocol droid.

Hold on!

In the original 1977 Star Wars feature (or ‘A New Hope’), Owen Lars, the uncle and parental figure for one Luke Skywalker, purchases both R2-D2 and C3-P0 by chance from some Jawas. And given the interaction and dialogue between Owen and 3P0, it’s made abundantly clear that C3-P0 is just another random droid to Owen, indistinguishable from any other potential protocol droid he could have purchased in his eyes. But here, we find out that Owen’s family had owned C3-P0 for a number of years! Yet in A New Hope he’s clearly meeting C3-P0 for the first time?!

Lucas tried to rectify this glaring, C3-P0-shaped plot hole in Revenge of the Sith by having C3-P0’s memory wiped by the end of things. But that doesn’t explain why Owen Lars has no recollection of his history with C3-P0. I’ve been re-watching the Star Wars films in episodic order recently, and by the time I got to the original film, I couldn’t help but laugh at Uncle Owen’s faithful ‘meeting’ with C3-P0. Attack of the Clones retroactively makes an important moment in A New Hope’s plot utterly nonsensical.

Maybe next time you should re-watch your own movies before making prequels to them, Georgie.

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones isn’t a total disaster of a movie. I reiterate that Obi-Wan’s plotline features some genuinely fun and exciting action sequences and intrigue. The final battle between the armies of Jedi and clone troopers against the Separatists’ battle droids is quite the sight. There’s a bit more focus here than in The Phantom Menace, and though the soundtrack isn’t one of the better ones in the series, it’s still John Williams so it’s still good.

But Attack of the Clones is unquestionably the weakest entry in the entire saga in retrospect. There’s an underlying arrogance to it on the part of George Lucas, who refused to listen to criticisms targeted at its predecessor and instead emphasized its creative and technical shortcomings all the more in this sequel. And I am usually forgiving of plot holes, because they’re usually forgivable, but the whole C3-P0 paradox at play here is just way too loud and prominent to ignore.

At the time of its release, Attack of the Clones was considered an improvement over The Phantom Menace. In retrospect, it makes me long for the days when Star Wars’s biggest issue was an annoying Gungan.

 

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