PT ROTS as a near-perfect synthesis of ANH and TESB

If ROTS isn't the best SW film, I would at least aver it's the most eminently watchable. And it wasn't until my last viewing that I could ascertain why: Episode III plays like a near-perfect amalgamation of IV and V.

While these first two installments are generally regarded as the finest in the series, they couldn't be more disparate in approach. Flash Gordon vying with something distinctly Greek. With ROTJ and the first two prequels, Lucas sought to integrate the two, but always with mixed results; with ROTS, he pulled off the experiment, successfully tethering the sense of wonder, cornball dialogue, political intrigue and swashbuckling spirit of the original to the depth, operatic sweep, and transporting beauty of Kershner's sequel. Ideal.

Any thoughts?

 

Far and away, I think, ROTS is the most "crowd-pleasing" of the prequels. One need only consider the way it starts: the original plan was for an Order 66-like war montage, and that quickly morphed into an "Indiana Jones"-like serial opening, full of thrills and spills, for -- what? -- thirty minutes straight? You're thrown right into the thick of the action in a way that's totally unlike TPM and AOTC; indeed, ANY of the other Star Wars movies. Now, TPM opens with a few neat bursts of action, and AOTC has a shock explosion, then winds down before a big chase sequence, but neither has the sustained intensity of Sith's opening: a sequence that proverbially has everything, including, literally, a kitchen sink. Anakin and Obi-Wan, the main characters, in many a sense of the term, are also in more of a "buddy" mode, here, along with the ever-faithful Artoo, who punctuates the end of the opening shot, and gets stuck in, dealing death and destruction to enemies, in an unprecedented manner. The darker stuff that follows, still with dashes of humour (e.g., Yoda taking out the red guards), to me, seems like more of a synthesis of all the movies, from the epic strains of TPM's action set pieces, to the melodrama of Anakin and Padme's AOTC romance, to, yes, the swash-buckling nature of ANH, to the more dynamic compositions in TESB, to the whimsical gags and scenery-chewing Emperor of ROTJ. It's all there, in some way, shape or form. For many, ROTS ranks up there with ANH and TESB, in the top three, but it also incorporates much that makes TPM, AOTC and ROTJ the black sheep of the saga. For these reasons and more, I like it mightily.

 

ROTS has great parts and not-so-great parts. You might say it has two sides... not unlike the Force.

For example, I'll never understand why the battle droid voices are so awful, when the corresponding effect used in TPM was so much better.

 

I get the sense that Lucas was genuinely apprehensive about the pitch-black tone of the third act and sought to mitigate this by ratcheting up the frivolity of the first act. Hence the augmented droid voices and General Grievous-as-Snidely Whiplash.

Indicative of the ANH/TESB balancing act to which I refer.

 

This is why I think as well. Add to that Lucas probably wanted it to be clear that the Seperatists weren't the real threat in the movie, unlike in TPM. It adds more of a grey area, and Sidious comes out as the ultimate evil of the saga.

In response to the original post, I personally find ROTS the easiest of the six to watch. Very little can be accused of being filler, and the fact that it leaves you wanting more enhances the whole saga for me. It really is a good connector to the every other installment, and next to ESB it is IMO the greatest accomplishment of the saga. I don't see myself ever getting bored of this movie, it's just so rich.

 

The battle droids are an interesting example of the way ROTS changes tonally.

That_Wascally_Droid made an observation that in the first act of ROTS you get all the "fun" of the earlier Prequel movies, with the battle droids silly voices (the silly voice is taken to another level) and the Jedi slicing them like a knife through butter

But when you get to Anakins slaughter of the Sepratists in the much darker second act of the movie the way he dispatches the battle droids in the Mustafar compound is completely differant. He just coldly destroys them almost like an after thought. All the fun and the silliness of that more "innocent" time has gone.

BTW, I completely agree drg. I think ROTS is probably the most all round satisfying movie of the Saga. It takes all the good point of the rest of the movies and puts them all together. It also has an added depth of tragedy that the other movies don't have. Its a tremendously sad movie really.

 

The droid deaths are pretty sad, in a way, I think. This is more manifest later, like when that battle droid is blown clear during an explosion in an incredible aerial shot on Kashyyyk, or, as G-FETT just mentioned, Anakin executing the separatists, where a battle droid pitifully tries firing on Anakin, only for Anakin to casually move his saber behind his head, killing the droid with his own deflected bolt. If you can imagine the droids -- well, the battle droids -- as robotic incarnations of Jar Jar, it hints that the Jedi mindlessly deal pain and death to child-like entities that no-one appears to have any time or place for. In this sense, ROTS is much darker and sadder than it conventionally seems.