*Official* 3NS ROTS Reviews (Ebert's review, spoiler-free inside!)

The reviews are starting to come in.

Windy and me will collect them and create edited, non-spoiler versions for 3NS.

If you find a review we haven't posted, either:

(a) PM one of us, and we'll edit it and bring it here, or

(b) if it is spoiler-free, post it here.

Here's some to get us started, I'll re-post my Kevin Smith review in here as well.

 

As a member of the 3NS community who has essentially failed in his quest to stay non-spoiled, I would like to volunteer my time to edit some reviews as well if you need the extra help.

 

From Kevin Smith, long-time SW fan, director of Clerks, Mallrats, etc.

You've been warned...

- "Revenge of the Sith" is, quite simply, ******* awesome. This is the "Star Wars" prequel the haters have been ********* for since "Menace" came out, and if they don't cop to that when they finally see it, they're lying. As dark as "Empire" was, this movie goes a thousand times darker - from EDITED ....this flick is so satisfyingly tragic, you'll think you're watching "Othello" or "Hamlet".

I saw a gorgeous digitally projected version of the flick, and lemme tell ya': this is a beautiful looking film. EDITED.

EDITED

Yes, it's just that dark - and rightfully so. This is the birth of Darth Vader we're talking about. The only comic moments EDITED all pretty few and far between; the order of the day is dark, dark, dark.

Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor steal the show, but Hayden Christensen silences any naysayers who wrote him off as too whiney in "Clones". This is the flick that feels closest to Episodes 4, 5, and 6, because - for the first time since "Return of the Jedi" - there is a clear villain. And for all the shadow-play Palpatine has been upto in the last two flicks, his treachery is about as subtle as John Williams' score in "Sith." ...EDITED... this is the Emperor's movie.

EDITED... dovetail nicely into Episode 4 (or just plain "Star Wars" for you non-geeks), and the movie is full of link-up moments as well.


Look, this is a movie I was genetically predisposed to love. I remember being eight years old, and reading in "Starlog" that Darth Vader became the half-man/half-machine he was following a duel with Ben Kenobi that climaxed with Vader falling into molten lava. Now, twenty six years later, I finally got to see that long-promised battled - and it lived up to any expectation I still held. I was sad to see the flick end, but happy to know it's not the end of the "Star Wars" universe entirely (I've read stuff about a TV show...).

"Sith" doesn't happen; "Sith" rules.


This one is from someone on Ain't It Cool News, so take it with a grain of salt.

I'm still under quite the impression and what little i can say right now is that it's by far the best episode.

I'll keep this short and absolutely spoilerless, with possible details about certain scenes later, if that's needed for you to believe me.

I remember, three years ago, when Attack of the Clones hit the theatres, there was bunch of talk about bad acting, bad writing, all sorts of things taking away from the whole experience. I felt that way too, for the most part. But with revenge of the sith, it's as if Lucas matured as a director, at least when the new star wars trilogy is concerned. Everything seems complete, it feels that every second of the film is used well and not wasted, no unnecesarry scenes. Battle scenes are by far better than in previous films, lightsabre duels too, with the possible exception of final phantom menace duel which i still hold very dear to my heart, even if the rest of the film was rather bad. Hayden does a fine job, but that also may be because there's no more groan inducing lame lines, just cool bad ass 'bow before me, i'll be darth vader' attitude. Maybe it's just that you don't really get the time to notice bad things, there's just too much action going on left and right. When there's no action, there's anticipation of it. No dull spots. I must say, i'm sort of sad this is the end, no new films. Just when it started to get good.

 

This is another review from AICN, but it definitely seems like they've seen the finished film. HEAVY, HEAVY spoilers in the actual review, I'll do my best to trim it down.


Harry,

Can?t say where I saw it. When I saw it. With whom I saw it. Just trust me, I did. Revenge of the Sith. Final print.

Won?t bore you with ?I?m a big fan?, blah, blah, blah. Rest assured, I am, and believe not much comes close to Empire Strikes Back when thinking Star Wars. Except maybe for this movie.

Please note I also liked Alien 3 which might, for some, call my credibility into question, but what the heck, here it goes

As if you don?t know already, the opening EDITED is absolutely breathtaking.

In fact, it?s worth to mention I never noticed strikingly bad dialogue throughout the movie.

Anyway, EDITED, the humor quotient goes up, but contrary to the infamous C3PO gags from AOTC I actually found some of the scenes pretty amusing... In retrospect, the lightweightness and a sense of adventure of the first 30 minutes contrast and emphasize the darkness that follows when things go bad for our characters.

Grevous is a non-entity for me. He?s supposed to be this great and invincible master strategist but nothing in the movie actually proves that he is except that the characters constantly say he is. I?d say Grevous? cartoonish appearance and his manierisms belong to the animated Clone Wars tv series rather then to this movie. In the end the general is just another droid and a plot point for Obi-Wan to follow, not the Episode III Big Bad Lucas often touted him to be.

EDITED "After the opening".... Revenge slows down a bit to make room for the seduction of Anakin. I read the movie novelization a while ago and must say I was truly impressed by how THE transformation of Anakin was handled. It just all made perfect sense and resulted in a tragic, ?can?t escape fate? dilemma for the character. I was rather afraid the movie would simplify matters too much ? I mean, the book had so much more time to concentrate on the slow and natural change in Anakin. Fortunately there are enough Palpatine / Anakin scenes throughout the film to actually illustrate the process of Skywalker being slowly dragged into the darkness. The signals of doom are all there: EDITED.

Speaking of Palpatine, Ian McDiarmid shines. To some extend, Revenge is his movie. I particularly liked subtle changes in his tone of voice and body language during his shifts between the good Chancellor Palpatine and ever-manipulative Emperor...EDITED.

Hayden Christensen, while not in the acting league of Ian or Ewan, gets to perform some nice and emotionally charged scenes, which was a nice surprise considering Attack of the Clones. The rift in Anakin / Padme relationship, EDITED.... is showcased with surprising believability.

A far cry from the overly forced love between them in AOTC, indeed. [Description of one scene] Definitely one of the great emotional highlights in ROTS and possibly the entire saga. Nice!

And then all hell breaks loose and the movie gets better, and better, and better... Mind you, this is a true PG-13 experience. EDITED...A goose-bums moment at its best.

I could go on for hours how much there is to cherish in the last 45 minutes of Revenge. The duels are absolutely awesome.

Obi-Wan / Anakin fight on Mustafar is just too good to write about. You need to see it for yourselves. What?s worth mentioning is another uber-cool moment just before the duel begins EDITED ....exchange between Obi-Wan and Anakin rule big time, no question about it.

Obviously I have barely scratched the surface as there is so much more to enjoy in Revenge of the Sith. Even though I dislike Grievous, EDITED... was fun to watch as an exciting adventure. Bail Organa, while absent for the first 45 minutes, delivers some good lines later on and is brought into the story seamlessly. The final minutes of the movie EDITED .... all of it is just heart-breaking, but cathartic and not without a sense of hope. A new hope

Call me No One

 

Heh, I love reviews. They make me even more impatient.

 

Oh. My. Gosh.

I cannot wait 19 days. I do not recall the anxiety level being this high for the previous films. I NEED this movie!

Good reviews =

Thanks for editing these for us, Windy and Garth!

 

I thought Windy was spoiler-free 'till Episode III

 

you guys rule thanx so much!

 

Would any reviews start showing up on Rotten Tomatto?

 

Wow. I don't know what to think. It almost seems like all my hopes might come true...so far three reviews...all three glowing...

Perhaps Episode III should have been called A New Hope because it may inspire the hope of the Haters and the Disillusioned.

 

Anyone know when press screenings are taking place? I know Empire Magazine posted their AOTC review a few days before it opened on their Star Wars mini-site.

 

These reviews are the shizzle, but it is only making me that much more excited and impatient. I get the feeling that the events that take place in this film are actually the entire point of the prequels, and Lucas had the best material to work with in this one. I know that he wrote the material, but he was obviously limited in what could take place in those episodes...he had to set all of this up so he could get to the part that we, as a fan base, have been dying to see. I know people have argued this before, including Lucas himself, but I also thought that it was copout...don't get me wrongo, I like the first two episodes, but I get the sensefrom the footage I've seen, including trailers, tv spots, and the CIII Spectacular footage, and these reviews, that this one is going to be on par with TESB and ANH. And hopefully this will increase our enjoyment of Episodes I and II. Something Lucas said at CIII: he stated that you have to watch these as one big film. He acknowledged that they have to stand alone as films to a certain degree, but he said he meant them to be a ginormous film. I can see that a little more now, more so with the prequels, because ANH and TESB do a fabulous job of standing alone... and of course ROTJ wraps up the whole thing.

If you don't feel like reading all of the above, sorry, the upshot is these reviews have me pumped. Word.

 

Can't say I'm surprised by that reviewer's dislike of Grievous. The whole character sounded pretty lame and overly Maul-ish/Boba Fett-ish () from the beginning, IMO.

I'm glad that the reviews are positive so far (even if there is only two of 'em )

 

quick question about this thread: On the morning of May 19th, when we come back from the theatre around 3 AM, are we suppose to post our reviews here, or is there going to be another site for omg . . . ?

 

Yea, Grevious looks and sounds rather bad. Glad that the reviews were still glowing even if they are from fanboys.

 

Yikes, those reviews make me excited!
I'd love to be able to read some non spoiler reviews here from the midnight viewers, since I won't be seeing ROTS until 6:00 pm.
Thanks, Garth, for posting these!

 

Thanks Garth, you posted the spoiler free one I mentioned in the Kevin Smith review thread yesterday. Yeah, I'm so jazzed about these reviews and I just talked to a friend who went to C3 and she told me to bring tissues.

"BRING IT ON!" from the character Joe Swanson on Family Guy, which is coming back to TV tomorrow. May is a great month! 19 more days, bring it on!

 

Reviews were all Great!!!!!!

ITS COMING !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ITS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!
19 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'd be excited at the early glowing reviews as well, but my fragile little ego is still wounded after all the Grievous bashing

In shame, I'll now change my Grievous desktop wallpaper to a different SW one

 

eh, i still have faith that grievous will be cool, just like the rest of the movie

 

Thanks, it sounds good.
I don't really care about Grievous and have never cared about the bad *** of the films (i.e. Maul, Fett.) For me the excitement is building for a few reasons:
1. The new planets.
2. Palpatine erupting onto the screen as Sidious. The character cycle completed.
3. Some good old fashioned droid humor.
4. Obi-Wan, Padme, Bail Organa, Anakin Skywalker, and the entire cast of characters again, together again.
5. To see all the puzzle pieces in place.

Grievous is a very minor part of this overall picture. He could be terrible, he could be fantastic but either way I could care less.

-Seldon

 

You mean you couldn't care less.

We'll set up a review thread for those that go on opening night for sure.

Grievous won't be that bad, you'll either like him or be indifferent.

 

Ummm, I am excited--I even got my tickets TODAY

 

Take the AICN reviews with many grains of salt.

I think the longer one has been taken down because it was a hoax. That's the problem with AICN, each of their reviews *could* be real or fake, unless it's one of their main contributors.

 

Garth, you are absolutely right. If Harry, Moriarty, or Alexandra haven't done a review, everyone else is kinda suspect. Won't be long before every movie critic will have a review out there.

For a hoax review though, it was fairly convincing. Oh well.