star wars revenge of the sith movie review

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Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Reviews

Hellbent on taking itself way too seriously, it’s less than the sum of its parts.

Full Review | May 31, 2024

This might come as a shock to most fans out there, but this is my favorite Star Wars story of all time.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2023

Given a hundred years of cinema language with which to make us feel Anakin’s turn, to make us experience his dread and suffering, Lucas decides instead to play in the sandbox of the future.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Sep 19, 2022

It’s a fantastic conclusion to the prequels and a satisfying segue to the classic original films.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

The experience isn't fun; rather, it's the best of three chapters in Lucas dull prequel saga, which isn't saying much.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 25, 2022

It's the prequel film that least gets in its own way, earning it de-facto honors as the best of the lot.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2022

Revenge of the Sith is by some distance the finest Star Wars prequel and though it can't quite sit on a par with the original trilogy, it skirts close.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 16, 2021

The film is largely a blank (despite all its frenetic activity), dispirited, unmoving and unconvincing from every point of view.

Full Review | Feb 15, 2021

As with the previous two prequels, space battles are the best visuals this franchise can deliver, easily trumping anything taking place on the ground.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 9, 2020

Revenge of the Sith is the film which puts the opera in space opera; no other Star Wars film has done it better.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 20, 2019

Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith closes out the prequels on a much needed strong note.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 15, 2019

[George Lucas] deserves a lot of credit. He not only restores order in his galaxy far, far away, he gives audiences the first pure thrill ride of the summer season.

Full Review | Nov 18, 2019

In the words of Samuel L. Jackson aka Master Jedi Mace Windu, "This is AWESOME." And indeed it is.

Full Review | Nov 15, 2019

The maximum exponent that, when he wants to, the filmmaker can take care of the dialogues to prodigious extremes. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 31, 2019

[Lucas] almost seemed bored by the last two films, but his passion for Sith is very apparent onscreen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 5, 2019

[I] found it much more entertaining than Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Apr 18, 2019

This tells the story of the downfall of the Jedi and the rise of Darth Vader well, and that's all I ever wanted out of the Prequels in the first place...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 26, 2019

The technical wizardry, the special effects, the ear-buzzing sound, the mind-numbing action and those magnificent light-sabres are all there.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 8, 2019

It missed at points and hit home runs in others, but it was a great end to a fun ride.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Dec 17, 2018

Lucas controls himself, unlike in the previous prequels, and sticks to the most poignant issues, which makes the transition from Sith to A New Hope effortless.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jan 29, 2018

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‘star wars: revenge of the sith’: thr’s 2005 review.

On May 19, 2005, Lucasfilm unveiled Episode III on the big screen.

By Kirk Honeycutt

Kirk Honeycutt

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On May 19, 2005, Lucasfilm unveiled Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith on the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below: 

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'shaun of the dead': thr's 2004 review, 'better off dead': thr's 1985 review.

Needless to say, international box office will register in the hundreds of millions. The real question is how much money the entire series, now ready for packaging and repackaging for all sorts of formats and media, will eventually take in. Let’s just say a lot.

What seems like the biggest drawback to Episode III turns out to be its strongest element. Even casual moviegoers know what is in store for the characters, who will wind up at the point where the original Star Wars — now dubbed Episode IV — A New Hope — began the whole saga nearly 30 years ago. We know how Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker will turn to the dark side of the Force, how his twin children will be separated at birth and how his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi and the tiny Jedi Master Yoda will turn into his mortal enemies. Yet watching these fates unfold with such tragic inevitability, watching each piece fall into place, is genuinely thrilling. In fact, knowing that these strong characters cannot and will not escape their fate is what moves us.

Action goes nonstop for more than 20 minutes as the two Jedi Knights supply the jaunty, gravity-defying heroics, while the droid R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) delivers brilliant comic action. This holds true throughout the film as writer-director Lucas does a much better job of interweaving comedy with the dramatic and even tragic.

The seduction of the troubled Anakin to the dark side and the turn of the cool, cerebral Palpatine into the dictator of the Galactic Empire occur in an intelligent and even persuasive way. The movie opens with the now traditional receding title crawl, which informs us that in the galactic warfare that has broken out, there are “heroes on both sides,” and “evil is everywhere.” Understandably, Anakin doesn’t know whom to trust.

As it is, he leads a double life, having secretly married beauteous Sen. Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman). Her pregnancy will now force that secret into the open and cause him to lose his knighthood. Even more pressing, the rescued Palpatine brings Anakin into his confidence and plants doubts in his mind about the Jedi Council. Sure enough, council head Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) signals that he has lost his trust in Anakin.

Poor dialogue and wooden acting still inflict the second trilogy. The tragic dimension of Anakin’s dilemma can only barely withstand lines like this from Padme: “You’re a good person. Don’t do this.” Many dialogue scenes, brief as they are, feel awkward and unnatural. Such scenes start cold — we can almost sense the clapboard moving out of camera frame — and end with long, lingering shots of actors’ blank faces. Yet in the face of the epic grandeur of the film’s design and action, these are mere quibbles.

Now completely at home with digital filmmaking, Lucas can blaze a pioneering path as no one else. Shooting on soundstages in Australia and Britain with additional photography in China, Thailand, Switzerland, Italy and Tunisia, Lucas thrusts viewers into pitched battles in looming caverns and giant spaceships or a lightsaber duel on a river of molten lava. Combining choreographic action aesthetics that are American, Chinese and otherwordly, Lucas has redefined fantasy filmmaking with Star Wars while teaching a generation of filmmakers to accept no limitations.

Yes, by all means, rewind! —Kirk Honeycutt, originally published on May 6, 2005.

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