The third movie in the story but the sixth movie in the franchise this was the movie that linked the prequels to the greater part of the saga. Released in 2005 and destined to be a huge success at the box office it was made with a budget of $113m it went on to make $868.4m, which was always expected but was the movie actually any good. It starred
Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker & Frank Oz and brought the first part of the story to a conclusion to set up the original story.
Whilst on that subject here is the story for this one (and you thought I just threw this together; well you would be wrong right). This story begins at the end of the clone wars (if you don’t know about the clone wars, don’t worry nor do I!). It begins with the two main Jedi’s from the previous movies namely Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are on a mission to rescue the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine who is being held by General Grievous. The two rescue him in a dramatic way and they crash land on a planet before they are reunited with Padmé Amidala. She explains to Anakin that she is pregnant and he is pleased and then starts to worry about his dreams of Amidala dying in child birth. His nervousness and the worm tongue of the Emperor turns Anakin to the dark side. With the clone war nearly over with the storm troopers in a victorious position he calls the Order 66. This is the call to kill all of the Jedi and anyone else that may show resistance. With the Jedi out of the way there is nothing to stand in the way of him taking power and Anakin becoming Darth Vader. The brown stuff is gonna hit the fan people.
I am ending the plot there but there is one scene in this movie when the helmet descends onto the head of Darth Vader and you hear the first breathe. That iconic breath that terrified my youth and made me a Star Wars fan. Shame Disney killed it but there we go the cycle of life is complete. Anyway moving swiftly on the Tri-Critic Sync Challenge got pretty close with a 5% difference not as good at the 4% of the other two (Big Trouble In Little China and Scrooged) but with my and IMDb effectively the same at 7.5/10 and then Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 80% that is close enough to get a mention. I would add that this has nothing on the original trilogy and the feeling when those movies come out and waiting for confirmation of Luke’s father and the battles happening beyond the stars the patients forced upon us as we waiting for the next one or the conclusion actually helped the joy of the reveal just like a kid waiting for Christmas morning sometimes the wait is worth it and the story is worth the investment of your emotions. The original three had that where the new three did not. I think the issue was when they began, we knew where the end would be, we knew that this led into A New Hope and we knew how that one started and that probably had a big impact on the story. I something feel that Lucas should have dealt with the episodes of 7-9 and then left someone else do the pre-episodes of 1-3 as they already had that premise there to follow and that could have been done to great effect. So, that is my view I enjoyed this movie and for me it is the best of the prequels as it leads into the ones I loved and it didn’t need three episodes to begin that story. All it did was stretch it across three movies where one would have done. Watch this and enjoy it but then go and re-watch the original and appreciate those more.
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