USA Today, May 20, 2005
Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith has critics raving: 83% of those listed by RottenTomatoes.com gave it a
“fresh” – or positive – rating. What critics are saying about George Lucas’ finale to the Star Wars saga:
Claudia Puig, USA Today
Revenge of the Sith chronicles Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker’s (Hayden Christensen) crucial transformation from a
principled, lovestruck, young knight to the malevolent Darth Vader. It offers terrific light saber battles and more
assured performances, particularly by Christensen, Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman. Sith is the movie Star Wars fans
have been waiting for. (PG-13: sci-fi violence and some intense images; full review at life.usatoday.com)
Jami Bernard, New York Daily News
And still the dialogue is astonishingly feeble, the acting unforgivably wooden. To paraphrase Yoda, the only creature
with truly human dimensions since Harrison Ford’s cowboy-mechanic Han Solo departed the galaxy: Bored I am.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Lucas has achieved what few artists do; he has created and populated a world of his own. His Star Wars movies are among
the most influential, both technically and commercially, ever made. And they are fun. If he got bogged down in solemnity
and theory in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the Force is in a jollier mood this time, and Revenge of the Sith is a
great entertainment.
David Edelstein, Slate
Revenge of the Sith packs a wallop. Or maybe it’s just a pop to the schnoz, but we’re so sedated that some actual
drama – a few Force in the Star Wars galaxy – sends us crashing to the canvas. It has certainly been a long slog through
two and a half movies to the second hour of Episode III, marked by lifeless pageantry, tectonic-plate pacing, Jar Jar,
effects-cluttered frames, and Medusa dialogue (i.e., it turns actors to stone). What a shock when George Lucas finds his
footing and the saga once again takes hold.
Eleanor Ringel Gillepsie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Only different. And so much better.
A long time ago (1977) in a galaxy far, far away (the ‘70s), George Lucas released a little picture called Star Wars and
changed the face of Hollywood forever.
Twenty-eight years and five movies later, the series comes to worthy, hold-your-head-high George end with Star Wars,
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Lucas has finally gotten in touch with his dark side and delivers a movie that’s
light-years away from the clumsy embarrassments of The Phantom Menace and the vapid miscalculations of Attack of the Clones, the preceding prequel films.
Bluntly put, Sith’s the best Star Wars movie since the best of them all, 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back.
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Revenge of the Sith ranks with The Empire Strikes Back as the richest and most challenging
movie in the cycle. It comes closer than any of the other episodes to realizing Mr. Lucas’ frequently reiterated dream of
bringing the combination of vigorous spectacle and mythic resonance he found in the films of Akira Kurosawa into American
commercial cinema.
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Heralded for its savagery (my God, it’s rated PG-13), the film follows Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen – to merely
call him wooden is an affront to puppets everywhere) as he loses his limbs and his conscience and takes on the evil mantle
of Darth Vader. But thematic darkness is no excuse for dimness in all other departments, except the visual.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
It’s a tribute to the power and durability of the universe Lucas and company created in the first three Star Wars movies
that we want to see this episode despite the tedium the previous two.
When the film’s ILM animation director Rob Coleman told Premiere Magazine that “George enjoys the postproduction process
the most, I get so much more of his time than the actors do,” he was unknowingly putting his finger on the flaw that keeps
these films dramatically leaden and earthbound … Finally, however, George Lucas does not seem to car. He own the Star Wars
concept outright and clearly feels that this is his world to do with as he pleases.
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
For years fan of the Star Wars series have been trying to convince us non-believers – and, to an extent, themselves – that
George Lucas is a genius whose work plumbs deep universal themes, a fact that would be self-evident if only we’d accept
Joseph Campbell as our personal Lord and savior. Somehow, a series that began as an enjoyable tongue-in-cheek amusement
has turned into a runaway train wreck of convoluted yet facile mythology, on that inexplicably invites, but can’t support,
constant defense as a serious work.
Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the darkest of the six-film opus, may just be the best of the lot. It
seems George Lucas has finally listened to fans and eliminated the cutesy touches and plodding exposition and concentrated
on a powerful story, riveting action and dazzling special effects. Its predecessors, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the
Clones, were the epitome of tedious. But by concentrating on the epic tale of a good guy gone bad Lucas has fashioned his
most accessible Star Wars film.
Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith wraps up the six-episode space opera with ribbons, bows, and multi-colored
lightsabers. The final movie in George Lucas’ extravaganza is a gift to die-hard fans, who will ignore the bad parts,
thrill to the good parts and come away happy.
George Lucas comes full circle in more ways than one in Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which is the
sixth – allegedly but not necessarily the last – of the Star Wars movies. After Episode II got so bogged down in politics
that it played like the Republic covered by C-Span, Episode III is a return to the classic space opera style that launched
the series. …
Finally: We get to the point.
Same logo. Same starry-night spacescape. Same music. Same crawl. Sam everything.
The Star Wars series divided the world into Good and Evil in a way that Hollywood, by the 1970s, had forgotten.
But (George) Lucas, in his by-now reflexive populism, wants to turn Anakin into Darth Vader without risking loss of
sympathy for him. The one figure in Revenge of the Sith who taps the true spirit of Star Wars is Ewan McGregor: With
his beautiful light, clipped delivery, he plays Alec Guinness’ playfulness, making Obi-Wan a marvel of benevolent moxie.
It’s certainly fun to see Darth Vader’s black armor back into place. … but by the end of Revenge of the Sith, it would be a
mistake to confuse Lucas’ tidy game of connect-the-episodes with elemental pleasure of the series at its best: pop
storytelling done effortlessly, ushering the audience into the darkness and the light.
This is by far the best film in the more recent trilogy, and also the best of the four episodes Mr. Lucas has directed.
That’s right (and my inner 11-year-old shudders as I type this): It’s better than Star Wars.
Drink the Kool-Aid. Wear blinders. Cover your ears. Because that’s the only way you can totally enjoy Revenge of the
Sith – the final and most futile attempt from skilled producer, clumsy director and tin-eared writer George Lucas to create
a prequel trilogy to match the myth-making spirit of the original Star Wars saga he unleashed 28 years ago. Fan boys, of
course, have convinced themselves otherwise.
Never but never underestimated the power of the dark side of the Force. It has made Revenge of the Sith into easily
the best of the trio of Star Wars prequels and has even attempted the tougher assignment of saving writer-director George
Lucas from himself.