Revenge of the Sith and The Star Wars Saga

Today we have my penultimate Star Wars post. Monday we can talk about other things... like gnomes.

The Star Wars Saga is now complete. So where does Revenge of the Sith fit in with the rest of the Saga? Well, first, here is my break down of all six movies in order of my preference.

1. The Empire Strikes Back
I like the dark movies, what can I say? This movie has the best script, directing and best acting. Plus, as partial as I am to lightsabers, Han Solo is my favorite character of the Saga, and this is all his show.

2. Revenge of the Sith
In all honesty this is probably a temporary rating, as the "just released" buzz is still making it shine a bit more than it should. Ask me in about a year and I bet I'll rank it under Return of the Jedi.

3. Return of the Jedi
Nothing wrong with this movie, its the perfect culmination of the saga. The main fault is that it doesn't seem to have the edge of Empire. I like the darkness of Episodes III and V; Jedi is almost too squeaky clean. I mean, what do Ewoks know about edge?

4. The Phantom Menace
I don't care what everybody says, I think this is a good movie. Qui Gon Ginn is a great but sadly underrated character, Yoda was still a puppet and The Darth Maul fight is probably the best in the Saga. Jar Jar really doesn't bother me NEARLY as much as Jake Lloyd. Seriously, why couldn't HE have been tossed in a lava pit?

5. A New Hope
Sadly the one that started it all doesn't hold up against the later editions of the Original Trilogy. Being "Star Wars", it is still an awesome experience, and it's a great set up, and an essential part of the saga, but on its own, it just doesn't stand out.

6. Attack of the Clones
This movie has a lot of great visuals, and Padme is finally legal, but Lucas tries to cram way too much story and cameos and instances of "Hey-look-what-I-can-do" movie making and writing that it becomes a jumble. It's still fun to watch, but you can count on it to leave more unanswered questions then to tie up plot lines.

So now you know how I really feel. ROTS is the elbow of the Star Wars Saga, connecting the bruised wrist of Episodes I and II to the buff upper arm of the Original Trilogy. It sets up, and stays true to the roots of Episodes IV, V and VI nicely while still a being a product (both in a positive and negative way) of Lucas' Prequel Vision. The delivery of the twins to their new homes was handled as good as it could have been, and Palpatine's unmasking and transformation to an Emperor was fine as well. The comic book and novel deal more with the formation of the Rebel Alliance (or so I'm told) and while I wish the movie would have touched on that, I don't think it suffered for want of it. I have always thought that the prequels were too devoid of the the technology, specifically the starships, from the Original Trilogy so it was a great joy to see the Tantive IV (Bail Organa's ship) in action. The ARC 170 Starfighters, V-Wings and an early shuttlecraft (though the latter still looked more advanced than it's Original Trilogy counterpart) were welcomed as well. I think here, finally, Lucas struck a good balance between honoring the look of the Original Trilogy while still updating it with modern effects technology.

On the commercials, they say that some paper proclaimed ROTS the best Star Wars movie ever, and while that is not true, it is the best thing that could have happened to Star Wars as a whole. It is okay to like Star Wars again, and though the vocal naysayers will always grind this movie (and all of the others) for its faults, the true fan of Star Wars, and of the movies will love a look back to the way things once were, while still celebrating the way things are going.