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Revenge of the Sith is low key great

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Deleted member 58846

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In the lead up to the release of The Rise of Skywalker, I have been going through all the numbered Star Wars movies (yes, even The Last Jedi... eventually), and I have to say it has reinforced an opinion I have long suspected may be true: Revenge of the Sith is lowkey great. In spite of the (mostly just) maligning the prequels get, Revenge of the Sith deserves better than to be straddled with their legacy.

Really, Revenge of the Sith is the story of two halves: half of it is pretty campy and not all that good. The thing with that is, that half knows how to have fun, and it does. The first half of the movie may be full of hamfisted charades masquerading as acting, but god damn if everyone is not having the time of their lives as they go along with the absurdity of the proceedings.

The second half of the movie, which was meant to be the coda for the whole franchise before Disney decided to randomly append a whole new set of movies to a closed loop and story, is not fun. It's dark and bleak and drab. The thing there though is, it is legitimately good, with actual stakes and gravitas, and a true conclusion to all plot threads, while also elevating the franchise with the kind of voice and movie making it has never seen before or since.

Put together, it's just a really good movie all around. Half of it is amazingly fun (which is why literally every scene is a meme), while the other half is actually just flat out really good. Honestly, I would rather watch Revenge of the Sith than... most other movies in the series, actually.
 
JeffGubb

JeffGubb

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Oct 25, 2017
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No it's not. The motivations are muddled and completely unbelieveable. The acting and writing is nails-on-chalkboard. It's the worst and most embarrassing Star Wars movie.
 
Kraken3dfx

Kraken3dfx

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Oct 25, 2017
2,943
Denver, CO
Sith is definitely the highlight of the prequels, far and away. I might even put it on the same level as Return of the Jedi. A hugely pleasant surprise after the previous 2 movies.
 
11037

11037

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Oct 25, 2017
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How often are we gonna get these threads??

It's the most enjoyable of the prequel trilogy but it still sucks ass. Terrible dialogue and dialogue and the lead up for Anakin is so rushed. It sucks.
 
Rendering...

Rendering...

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Oct 30, 2017
19,089
We just had this thread, right?

I'll post what I posted there.

Rendering... said:
The acting is too bad for me to get into it. If Palpatine handn't been turned into a rubber-faced cartoon character, he might have almost redeemed the movie for me. He's perfect as Chancellor Palpatine but way too over the top as Sidious. (Cut the Sheev shit, BTW. None of the movies call him that.)

There's nothing brilliant about the way RotS goes for maximum bombast. To call the movie "campy" is purely an excuse for bad direction and all the sour notes that it hits on its way to dramatic failure. The movie isn't trying to be campy, it's trying to make Anakin's fall as melodramatic and tragic as possible. It's trying to be cool. It's trying to be serious. It's trying to make us believe in characters who don't speak or behave like normal people.

Bad writing isn't camp. Bad performances aren't camp. Sucking the gravitas out of all the most important moments in the story with some combination of distracting action and editing, weird line delivery, poor dialogue, and unconvincing acting isn't camp.

Pick any important event in the movie and ask yourself if it lives up to its potential. The Jedi attempting to arrest Palpatine? Palpatine getting deformed/unmasked? Anakin pledging loyalty to Sidious and being named Darth Vader? Padme confronting Anakin on Mustafar? Anakin dueling Obi-Wan? Yoda confronting Sidious? Anakin being sealed in the Vader armor? Darth Vader's first moments as his classic self?

To pick just one example, Anakin and Obi-Wan's duel could have been truly powerful if it wasn't overshadowed by the absurd volcanic thrill ride, complete with Tarzan swinging, raft riding, and lava dodging. This is supposed to be the devastating breakdown of a close friendship, but the staging of the fight, and the constant cutting to Yoda and Sidious's even sillier battle, ruins any chance for it to get intensely personal. But then, the prequels never did bother to establish Anakin and Obi-Wan's camaraderie very well in the first place. They banter, but they never demonstrate what they mean to each other.

Think about why RotJ's throne room scene works so much better than the RotS duel. It's because in the throne room the focus is squarely on the characters. Nobody's flipping around or avoiding large-scale devastation. All the movie's themes and stakes are encapsulated in Luke resisting the evil Emperor, Luke trusting that Vader can be redeemed, Luke throwing away his lightsaber and standing up for his beliefs.

In the RotS duel we get literally one effective line: "You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you." But one good and well delivered line is no substitute for three movies of clumsily telling the audience what they should have shown us through the characters' actions and choices, developing the relationships and showing us who these people are in an organic way.

RotS is a story with huge potential, badly told. That's it. Good for you if you find it entertaining, but George Lucas dropped the ball. It could have been so much better.
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Nooblet

Nooblet

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Oct 25, 2017
13,621
Sheev makes the movie

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giphy.gif
 
headfallsoff

headfallsoff

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Mar 16, 2018
681
Imagine not being able to open your heart to Revenge of the Sith. The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be un-natural.
 
Richiek

Richiek

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Nov 2, 2017
12,063
11037 said:
How often are we gonna get these threads??

It's the most enjoyable of the prequel trilogy but it still sucks ass. Terrible dialogue and dialogue and the lead up for Anakin is so rushed. It sucks.
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Not as much as the endless prequel bitching and moaning threads here.

IMHO, Revenge of the Sith is a top 3 SW film, on par with A New Hope and Empire.
 
Burai

Burai

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,080
JEFFREY GRUBB said:
No it's not. The motivations are muddled and completely unbelieveable. The acting and writing is nails-on-chalkboard. It's the worst and most embarrassing Star Wars movie.
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This.

"If you're evil, we can save your wife."

"Cool."

"Also, I'm electrocuting myself in the face for no real reason. This means the Jedi are evil."

"Excellent, I'll go kill the children."

...

"OK, wife and friends are all dead now. I'll carry on serving you for no reason."

"Good. Now let's build the Death Star but not bother using it for nearly 20 years."
 
Sain

Sain

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Nov 13, 2017
1,531
Def. better than the the other two movies in the prequel trilogy, The Last Jedi, and probably on-par with TFA. I actually really enjoy ROTS and could re-watch it any day.
 
Window

Window

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Oct 27, 2017
8,282
We've had like 10 derivatives of this thread over the past month. It's a bad movie with some nice action/visuals at places.
 
tapedeck

tapedeck

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Oct 28, 2017
7,974
JEFFREY GRUBB said:
No it's not. The motivations are muddled and completely unbelieveable. The acting and writing is nails-on-chalkboard. It's the worst and most embarrassing Star Wars movie.
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I think it's better than Episodes I and II. That said all three movies have cringe inducing cheese, awful writing and ludicrous scenarios. The prequels get worse and worse with age..if that's possible.
 
Rendering...

Rendering...

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Oct 30, 2017
19,089
Burai said:
This.

"If you're evil, we can save your wife."

"Cool."

"Also, I'm electrocuting myself in the face for no real reason. This means the Jedi are evil."

"Excellent, I'll go kill the children."

...

"OK, wife and friends are all dead now. I'll carry on serving you for no reason."

"Good. Now let's build the Death Star but not bother using it for nearly 20 years."
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"Hey by the way, about saving your wife... I know that together we can uncover the secret. Now go murder some kids."
 
Noodle

Noodle

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Aug 22, 2018
3,427
I never got the praise this film received over the other two. "It's darker!", "it's actually a good movie". It's shit. Another villain appears out nowhere and the film acts like the audience is supposed to know or care who he is. That terrible CGI Grievous chase with Obiwan. Countless CGI backdrops with shot-reverse shot dialogue. Padmen and Anakin relationship is still wooden and feels like it was written by non-humans.The dumbest motivations and character heel turns out of all the films. Film drags on for ages. Pointless "epic" lightsaber duel at the end with no weight to any of the blows.
 
Burai

Burai

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Oct 27, 2017
2,080
"Anakin, be careful about your really good friend Sheev that you hang out with all the time."

"What? I barely know the guy."

"Yeah, shit, we forgot to put that in the other movies but now it's a thing. Best friends forever."
 
Lord Hypnos

Lord Hypnos

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Oct 31, 2017
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I thought people only liked ROTS because of the memes. The movie itself is only marginally better than PM or AOTC.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 58846

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People coming in here to declare how the movie has poor character development and motivations make me laugh because the implication is Star Wars was ever actually good at any of that shit.
 
dancingphlower

dancingphlower

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Oct 27, 2017
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It really is not...lol. It's hilarious in a so bad it's good way, and I love it for that, but it's most certainly not a great movie. The writing is awful.
 
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