PT Do you agree that Revenge of the Sith was the weakest film of the Prequels?

I think it was. And I've noticed as time has gone on and over a decade has passed by since Episode III came out, this has very slowly started to become consensus among the fandom and especially more hardcore PT fans like myself. Now don't get me wrong, just because Revenge of the Sith is the weakest film of the Prequels or possibly the weakest film of the original six films doesn't at all make a bad movie. None of George Lucas' Star Wars films are bad, it's just that Revenge of the Sith happened to be much less expressive and amazing than the previous five films that followed it.

The reason I consider Revenge of the Sith the weakest of the Prequels is because I feel like it was the most corporate and risk-free film to make of the three and I felt George just pandered and gave in to what he thought the fans after the very mixed reviews of the first two Prequels. That and add to the fact that it was thought to be the last Star Wars film ever at the time and serve as the complete conclusion to the Prequels and finally tell us how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and it just felt like Lucas and co. just wanted to go out with a giant bang. All the complaints about the Prequels having bad dialogue, wooden acting, being more "toyetic" (I hate that word), or filled with plot holes can be solely traced back to this movie.

I also consider Episode III to be the point where the Star Wars brand was slowly morphing into what is today. Just look no further than at all the Darth Vader and OT-based merchandise that came with the movie and you can tell the seeds were already planted there for what was to come to for this franchise. It was the point where Star Wars would star to cash-in on nostalgia and people just wanted to relive their 80's childhoods - peaking at all time high with The Force Awakens and Rogue One - and hopefully finally starting to die out now.

 

No it hasn't.

 

I'm not following. Was it perfect? No. Did it derail? If anything, it was quite impressive how well certain things could be deduced instead of blatantly told (Mace v. Palps, etc).

I usually list it as my #2 only under Empire because that movie was the closest thing to a tight knight story despite not having a large space battle scene for the excitement factor. RotS had a good mix of action and non-action drama.

I'm not sure how it was safe. Unless you consider pushing the envelope to the point where Anakin doesn't turn into Vader and we are all shocked because it was the only thing we were 100% sure of. But doing something different just for the sake of different is infinitely worse than safe.

The only pander would probably be pulling back Jar Jar's role (assuming he did). You don't have to cater to the fans, but you don't have to completely ignore them either.

 

If you go into the "Rank the movies" thread you will notice that RoTS is easily the most popular of the Prequels there (I know, I know small sample size) so I don't really think its the "general consensus".

 

Cool opening, but yeah, I think it's the worst.

 

....Since when has ROTS being the worst prequel been the consensus? I'm lost.

 

(On phone once again).

No. Saying ROTS steered more towards the corporate stigma would be a disengenuous statement. What should be said is that ROTS was a bit of a crowd pleaser, which is inevitable since Lucas knows this is what the fans truly wanted to see rather than the journey to get there. It’s the end of the saga so you sorta have to do this don't you?

It’s “simpler” than the past 2 titles due to the straightforward narrative(rather AOTC/TPM outworldly expressive tone) and you can understand how Lucas was now under constraints rather than freedom since this has to tie all loose ends. But a “simple” SW movie of Lucas’s, is still layered with depths and color coded complexity.

I’m on the fence that ROTS is one of the more tighter SW films(with ESB and TPM just ahead). It’s operatic, fine tuned and is a perfect end to the PT saga. All SW films are a little weak on their own but when you mend them all as one movie, it’s an incredible experience.

P.S.

Yes, the OT Toys started producing. Why not? At the end of ROTS began the shift in focus to ANH.

 

Actually its my favourite star wars movie. If only the PT anakin was more like ROTS anakin throughout the prequel trilogy would have been much much better

 

Each to their own opinion, but I think that RotS was the best PT installment. By its very nature, RotS was always going to be a bit of a fan pleaser. Who didn't want to see how Vader got fitted for his shiny black suit?

Far from being a corporate pleasing movie, I felt that George Lucas took some serious risks with tone and content. Some of the scenes were very adult in content (slaughter at the Jedi Temple and Anakin's slowly burning up on Mustafar).

RotS was the first Star Wars movie to receive a PG-13 rating. This risked alienating cinema goers with young children. Personally, I was a little taken aback by some of the scenes on my first viewing, but it was all necessary and really served the storyline.

 

IMO it's the best of the PT and possibly of all SW films. Only ESB can match it in terms of the tightness of its storytelling. I'm actually not keen on the opening space battle (buzzdroids), which has the videogamey vibe of AOTC, but after that I struggle to pick out any obvious areas for improvement. It has several of the high points of the entire saga, such as Order 66 and the final confrontation on Mustafar.

 

Baz Edit: Nope. Other than Trolling/flaming, what are you doing in this forum.

 

Interesting quote from @ppslytherin1994 earlier today:

 

Revenge of the Sith had the best soundtrack, visual effects, moments (story of Darth Plagueis, Order 66, Anakin vs. Obi-Wan, the entire opening sequence) and perhaps the most engaging and emotional story of the entire saga. It's yet to be matched by any Star Wars film in my opinion. I really don't find it to be the weakest of anything.

 

Once in a blue moon I'll hear someone say they thought RotS was terrible or the worst of the prequels or something to that effect. But it's definitely a tiny, tiny minority of fans. I hear certain criticisms pretty often, but few people think it just suxx overall. I don't personally think it's anywhere near the worst of the PT either.