“Revenge of the Sith” Celebrates Twenty Year Milestone

For those who may or may not know, May 4th is Star Wars Day. Star Wars Day is an informal commemorative day observed annually to celebrate the lucrative franchise (which has seen better days).

So, for Star Wars Day, I took a look at “Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith,” which is probably the best of the prequel trilogy and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year - yes, 2005 is twenty years ago!

It has been three years since the Clone Wars began. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker rescue Chancellor Palpatine from General Grievous, the commander of the droid armies, but Grievous escapes.

Suspicions are raised within the Jedi Council concerning Palpatine, with whom Anakin has formed a bond. Asked to spy on the Chancellor, and full of bitterness toward the Jedi Council, Anakin embraces the Dark Side.

“Revenge of the Sith” marks the conclusion of the prequel trilogy, which just like the recent sequel trilogy, has been met with mixed reactions from critics and fans. It has been a few years since I have seen this entry. And now that I revisited the movie, despite a couple little flaws here and there, it’s still the strongest of the prequel trilogy.

Out of the three prequel movies, “Revenge of the Sith” is the entry that delivers the most emotion and depth, especially once Anakin (aka Darth Vader) slowly comes closer to joining the Dark Side. The pace of the movie runs smoothly and, just like the other prequels, slows down a bit during the Anakin/Padme scenes.

“Revenge of the Sith” also has quite a few compelling and visually incredible action sequences. The best action moments come into play towards the latter half of the movie when the climactic battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin happens. The entire battle was probably the most anticipated battle of the prequel trilogy since it would eventually lead to Anakin’s complete transformation to Darth Vader.

Despite some mixed criticism from both critics and fans, the third prequel still remains quite popular and is one of the darkest entries in the entire franchise. “Revenge of the Sith” delivers a strong story, has plenty of emotional depth and the connections to the original trilogy makes “Episode III” really stand out.

You can currently stream “Revenge of the Sith” and the other “Star Wars” movies (along with the shows) on Disney Plus.

Trivia: George Lucas deliberately made the Darth Vader suit top-heavy (for instance adding weight on the helmet) to make actor Hayden Christenson not appear “too accustomed” to it in the movie. The original cut of the movie ran almost four hours - talk about a real long movie!

The images of the volcanic eruption on Mustafar are real footage of Mt. Edna in Italy, which was erupting at the time of production. 

MPA: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images  (running time 140 minutes)

Writer’s note: Make sure to keep on checking my Wyoming County Press Examiner reviews page on Facebook to see what else I have planned on the review front. I plan on checking out quite a few other Spring Film Festival selections coming up, along with other new/recent releases!

• George Lucas deliberately made the Darth Vader suit top-heavy (for instance adding weight on the helmet) to make Hayden Christensen not appear "too accustomed" to it in the movie.

• The original cut of this movie ran nearly four hours. The opening battle/Palpatine rescue alone ran over an hour. The extra footage of the Palpatine rescue scene is shown in the video game for this movie, however.

• The images of the volcanic eruption on Mustafar is real footage of Mt. Etna in Italy, which was erupting at the time of production.

• Ewan McGregor had Lucasfilm make him a looped reel of all of Sir Alec Guinness' scenes from the original trilogy so that he could study them and perfect both the accent and the pacing of his words belonging to Sir Alec Guinness.

• A ten-year-old Han Solo was going to appear during the Battle of Kashyyyk, as an orphan being raised by Chewbacca. He would have helped locate General Grievous by finding part of a transmitter droid that was sending signals from Utapau, allowing Obi-Wan to find and confront him. Solo's young adult years were later depicted in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), set between twelve and nine years after this movie.

• The volcanic world of Mustafar was designed to look like George Lucas's vision of hell.

• George Lucas originally intended to have Peter Cushing reprise his role as Tarkin, years after his death, through the use of stock footage and digital technology. However, the idea was scrapped when the footage of Cushing was deemed unusable. Instead, Wayne Pygram played Tarkin, wearing prosthetic makeup to resemble Cushing. Cushing's likeness was digitally inserted into Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016).