Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith

RED = SPOILERS:

Is it wrong to do evil in order to do good? If evil is a point of view, who’s to say? How can one person be manipulated in so many directions by so many people to do so many things when they’re supposed to be so powerful? Anakin was supposed to be the “Chosen One”. He was supposed to bring peace and justice to the galaxy, instead, he brought The Emperor to power and sentenced every planet to suffer under the cruel fist of the Empire. Episode 3 is my favorite because it shows the duality of human nature. Anakin was a Jedi Knight in one scene, sworn to an oath to protect the galaxy. And by doing what he thought was right, turned to evil quickly after. Causing all of those who were weaker than him, which is essentially everybody, to suffer…

What’s it about? The next movie on the Star Wars marathon is my favorite of the series, Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. This one is about Anakin’s turn to the dark side finally happening as Palpatine’s plot comes to fruition. There’s so many easter eggs in this movie, it’s fun to point them out to people that don’t know about them. People that aren’t super fans of Star Wars. Like when they’re pulling into the spaceport after they crash land on Coruscant, there’s a tiny Millennium Falcon that can be seen flying down on the bottom of the screen. It’s only there for a second, and you don’t see it unless you know where it is and you’re looking for it.  

What’s good? Everything about this movie is good. The story, the acting, the effects. Even Natalie Portman does a good job. To a certain extent… The duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan is the best lightsaber duel in the series. I don’t know how the sequels made movies over a decade later and didn’t have better lightsaber duels, but they didn’t.  

What’s bad? There’s not a whole lot that’s bad about this movie. Maybe I’m just biased, but I really have a hard time finding anything wrong with this one.  

The acting. There are some spots where the acting is kinda poor. Like the fight scene with Windu and Palpatine. I don’t know what that line is about. “I’m weak… I’m so weak…” It just sounds really weird. And there’s that famous meme about Padme and “Anakin… You’re breaking my heart…” But like I said, I’ve never really given Natalie Portman that much credit for her acting anyway.  

Anakin was being manipulated by both sides. Anakin is being pulled by both sides and he doesn’t realize it. Palpatine is trying to get him to spy on the Jedi Council and then in return, the Jedi Council tries to get him to spy on Palpatine. But the Council trying to get Anakin to spy on Palpatine was part of Palpatine’s plan the entire time.  

Palpatine’s plot couldn’t be stopped by a certain point. After a certain point, Palpatine’s plot was so far in motion, there was nothing that could be done to stop it. The clone army was already in place. Anakin was suspicious of the Jedi Council. The galaxy was at war with itself. And the Jedi were spread thin. At a certain point, all there was left to do was to pull the trigger. 

Anakin turns to the dark side thinking he’s the good guy. When Anakin does turn to the dark side, he does it thinking he’s doing it for a good reason. He does it thinking he’s going to save his wife. He doesn’t think he’s the bad guy at all. He thinks he’s saving everyone else. That makes him even more dangerous than a regular Jedi. 

All the clone troopers turned at once. When Palpatine issues Order 66 and all the clone troopers turn on their Jedi commanders, it happens all at once, all across the galaxy. So, all kinds of battles that were happening and even just communications between platoons or something just turned into clone troopers murdering Jedi for no reason.  

Anakin murders younglings. The scene where Anakin goes into the room and the little youngling goes “Master Skywalker, they’re everywhere! What are we going to do?!” And Anakin opens his lightsaber… I don’t know why I find the look on that little kid’s face so funny… 

Padme asks Obi-Wan if he’s going to kill Anakin. After Anakin turns to the dark side, Obi-Wan asks Padme where he can find him. Padme looks fearfully at Obi-Wan and goes “You’re going to kill him…?” And his response is just “He has become a very great threat…” Because what else can he say? It’s not like he’s going to try and negotiate with him. He’s a Sith Lord. Jedi kill Sith Lords. It’s kinda how things work… 

Obi-Wan leaves Mustafar knowing Anakin is still alive. When Obi-Wan left Mustafar, he knew Anakin was still alive. If Anakin had died before Obi-Wan had gotten off the planet, Obi-Wan would’ve felt it. But he didn’t. Obi-Wan willingly left Anakin there, on Mustafar to burn and die, not expecting him to survive. He didn’t know that the emperor would show up to rescue Anakin and put him in the Darth Vader life support suit that everyone knows.  

The emperor tells Anakin he killed Padme, sealing his service to him forever. After putting Anakin in the life support suit, Anakin asks what happened to Padme and the emperor tells him that in his anger, he killed her. Not only does this increase the rage and hatred inside of Anakin, thus making his dark side powers even stronger, but it also closes the book on Padme, leaving the emperor to be the only thing that Anakin has any allegiance to anymore.  

Luke becomes a farm boy while Leia becomes a princess. Talk about luck of the draw. Leia goes on to get adopted by the King and Queen of Aalderan. Meanwhile, Luke goes back to a farm on Tattooine. Sucks to be you, dude… 

So, anyway, if you’re going on a Star Wars run, Episode 3 is probably the best one. At least, it’s my favorite one. Some might disagree. But that’s their point of view. And as always, May the Force Be With You…