The Word on the Street

The word on the street is that Revenge of the Sith is a much better film than Episodes I and II and according to some early reports it may be as good as Episodes IV or V. Of course, early reports tend to be more optimistic than later reviews but I really do believe this film is going to be a very good if not great film.... Just call it a hobbit hunch....
Here are just a few of the comments leaking out from critics from around the country who have already seen the film. Enjoy.....

It's not easy defending the latter-day Star Wars films. People throw garbage. Small children spit on you in the street. Friends still refer to me as "the Jar Jar apologist" and make vague warnings about graveside eulogies. But now, with the grand finale to his 30-year-old space saga, George Lucas has finally given supporters like me some real ammunition. For not only is Revenge of the Sith the best of the three prequels, but it fully returns us to the joy and fun that the original trilogy conjured so well.

Revenge of the Sith isn’t just a great Star Wars movie, it’s a flat out great film. Yes it’s technically proficient and yes it’s visually beautiful. Those things are a given. What hasn’t been is how solidly the film is constructed. Revenge of the Sith is a powerful, big budget experience. Yet it is the way that it fits so wonderfully into the existing Star Wars mythos that best sells it, the way it nestles so nicely into 1977’s Episode IV: A New Hope that makes it special. The real beauty is that you could easily toss out the previous two awkward attempts, watch only this in sequence with the original films, and come out completely satisfied. Attack of the Clones and The Phantom Menace are best forgotten. Lucas’s real miscalculation was in not making this movie right from the start. He tried to stretch the story when all we needed was Vader’s rise in its purest form. Star Wars fans have finally been rewarded for their patience. George has made another masterpiece.

The first 20 minutes of Revenge of the Sith is one of the most exciting things you'll ever see projected onto a screen. It rivals the booby-trapped cave intro. to Raiders of the Lost Ark. It beats the infamous skinny-dipping opening scene that scared an entire nation out of the water and back onto the beach in the original Jaws. It even makes the spectacular opening sequences in The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi pale in comparison. If you're not laughing, clapping and having the time of your life during this scene, you're a corpse pumped full of Valium, whisky and Xanax.

Believe the hype. “Star Wars: Episode III – The Revenge of the Sith” is the crowning achievement of the Star Wars mythos. This is the Star Wars movie that everyone has been waiting on.The special effects, characters, etc. are great but “Sith” is really the definitive Star Wars movie (sorry “Empire Strikes Back”) because Director/Writer George Lucas doesn’t try to cater to anyone – fans, critics or even kids – he has a story to tell and he tells it on his terms. The results are undeniably brilliant.

Culling from mythology, religion, and psychology, particularly Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces," George Lucas has created a pop tragic character who struggles with issues of love, anger and a lust for power. On another level, Darth Vader embodies the man vs. machine battle in a war that has been waged since the Industrial Revolution. Once again, John Williams' thrilling, signature music contrasts the light and dark forces. With its PG-13 rating, it's darker, filled with fighting and definitely not for very young children. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" is an enthralling, triumphant 10, completing Lucas' 33-year project, a significant cultural phenomenon that encompasses six feature films.
Like the prophecies that haunt the characters, this movie has been foretold for a long, long time. The events of "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith" have been the stuff of pop mythology since 1977. "We meet again," Darth Vader rasped in the original film (now "Episode IV – A New Hope") before he crossed lightsabers with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness). Now, after a series of uneven but always inventive sequels and prequels, the six-film saga comes full circle, and George Lucas stages the duel with operatic glory: at the film's climax, Vader and Kenobi (now played by Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor) face off in an apocalyptic river of molten lava. "Revenge of the Sith" is, in every sense of the word, the ultimate Star Wars film.
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith,” the sixth and final episode of George Lucas’ sci-fi epos, is so much better than Episodes I and II of the prequel that it almost obliterates the bad taste left after the 1999 and 2002 installments, which managed to offend even the hardcore fans of the seminal series.

While it's safe to say that STAR WARS, EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH will not be in competition for the Best Film Oscar next year, the story might be different if there were a category for Most Improved. For surely under that criteria, it would win in a walk. Its two predecessors in the Star Wars canon -- the dreary and dour Phantom Menace and the incoherent Attack of the Clones -- not only disappointed fans and confused casual audiences, but also sullied memories of the original 1970's trilogy, diluting the saga of the Skywalker clan and their imaginative universe. For many, the newest efforts by George Lucas can still be summed up in one phrase: Jar Jar Binks...Which will make the experience of the final film in the series, REVENGE OF THE SITH, an unexpectedly sweet pleasure.

Here's your "Revenge of the Sith" review in a nutshell: It may well be the best of all six Star Wars movies -- with the caveat that you need to have seen the other five films to truly grasp its significance...The cunning dexterity and gravitas with which George Lucas snaps into place every remaining puzzle piece in his epic 30-year story arc is remarkable.

If anything, this fantasy film is a rather poignant warning on the dangers of fear mongering. A lesson on the evil men can do while wrapping themselves in the mantle of freedom, democracy, and safety. As Anakin himself points out later in the film, it all depends on your point of view. Words that are later echoed from the lips of Obi Wan, when instructing Anakin’s son Luke. That’s the kind of highly tuned resonance Revenge of the Sith has. There’s a real sense not only that the vibrations of this film mean something to this universe down the road, but that they might have some application to our world as well. Maybe Lucas is finally getting around to starting that religion so many people have been pushing for, but I prefer to think that the man has at last re-found his footing as a relevant filmmaker.

If you want to read these comments in their original context check out Rottentomatoes website at http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_3/

Reading these reviews makes my mouth drool for more...... Just eight more days!