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I've left almost 24 hours until reviewing this film, because I had to make certain my opinions of it (when I first saw the other two prequels, I thought they were both absolutely brilliant - with hindsight, those views were rather reactionary). So I think I've come to a conclusion now. It's a good film, but not brilliant: never does it equal The Empire Strikes Back, for instance. After an exciting opening, the film really slows down and it is in the first half where the flaws are mainly evident. A lot of exposition happens in this section, and to be honest, it's not hugely enthralling. Obi-Wan is sent off to Utapau to fight General Grievous, a new and rather pointless character. Anakin does a lot of brooding and contemplating. It's only really at about the midway point where the film really gets to the interesting part, when Mace confronts Palpatine. Unfortunately I found that the way that it was finally revealed that Palpatine was a Sith was rather lame and unimaginative: Palpatine tells Anakin, and Anakin tells Mace, who doesn't really seem surprised (I mean, I suppose he'd have an inkling but still...). However, the fight between the two masters is great, and the way the outcome happens is also quite surprising. After this, Anakin finally gives in to the Dark Side. Anakin's turn is actually very well done and believable, with all that slow exposition actually paying off.
The plot is rather complex, more so than any other SW film, so I'll probably need to watch it again to completely notice everything. The film has lots of high points, notably the breathtaking Jedi extermination sequence, as well as The Duel. Speaking of which, I thought it was very good indeed, except it didn't end how I thought it would, in fact coming to a rather abrupt stop. I thought there'd be more of a feeling that Obi-Wan was fighting against unassailable odds (a la Luke vs. Vader/Palpatine in Return of the Jedi) but they actually came across as more evenly matched than that. I do have to give props to Lucas though for really not flinching away from showing Anakin's burned body, which is fairly horrific. Everything comes together beautifully at the end, setting up A New Hope perfectly and tying up all the loose ends. There are even a couple of things explained that I wasn't expecting to be! It is a great achievement that you really understand why Anakin turned to evil, and can also see why Luke manages to bring him back to the light. As far as the acting goes, I thought the best performance was definitely from Ewan McGregor, who finally seemed to own the role of Obi-Wan. The Anakin-Padme scenes were again lacking in much chemistry (or good dialogue) but it wasn't so pronounced this time. One thing that kept getting to me was that a few times it seemed to cut away from the action at really annoying moments, just as the scenes were building up momentum, so I feel like the editing (or ordering of scenes in the script) could have been better. Looking at the prequel trilogy now, I think that Episode I is actually closest to the original trilogy in structure (a fairly straightforward action adventure) but Episode III is definitely the closest in emotion. So ROTS is certainly a different beast from any of the OT, but at the same time, is the best of the prequels, and does recapture some of the magic. Does it better any of the originals? Tough call. Come back to me in a few years.
The summary
Revenge of the Sith is a rather lumbering beast at times, but it has enough high points to make up for it. It doesn't quite save the prequel trilogy from ignominy though.
