Bringing Emotion Back to the Stars
Third times the charm is something I say often in life and third times the charm is the exact right thing to say for the Star Wars prequels. When I was a kid I rather enjoyed Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones but that slowly changed over time and when I saw Revenge of the Sith when I was eleven, yes eleven, my views on the difference between the prequels to the original trilogy changed quite a lot and especially a lot for an eleven-year-old to think about. I now had a firm understanding of what was a good Star Wars film and this would start the foundations of who I am today and how I view films and how I write about them from a critic point of view.
Getting all of the junk out of the way first is the best idea here. Okay, Hayden Christensen’s acting isn’t fantastic but I can’t imagine it would’ve been easy for him. On one side he has the pressure of pretty much carrying this whole highly criticised trilogy on his shoulders and on the other side he has George Lucas giving him probably a little-outdated advice on what to do. You still have a few boring conversations and a little bit of bad CGI as well as a few weird editing choices that move the story along quicker but maybe the scene could’ve just been written better.
Now that all of that is out of the way I’d like to start by defending one choice in particular that I had noticed that changed in my mind since back when the film came out and that’s Padme dying because she didn’t have the will to live. This ending for Padme didn’t go over well with a lot of people as it felt a little ridiculous and silly but looking back at it as a 23-year old I think I understand what Lucas was thinking. When you lose someone close to you, like Anakin was to Padme, in life you are inevitably broken-hearted, you don’t become damaged but more that you feel like you’ve lost part of who you are. In the middle of the story of the prequels is this idea that Anakin and Padme are soul mates, they are connected to each other and they are one another. The Force in Star Wars is a whole other thing entirely and that is where I think people are lost. Padme didn’t just lose the will to live she died from having part of her soul ripped away from her by the Emperor who has turned Anakin to the dark side. Her last words to Obi-Wan are saying that there is still good in him and that’s because only can truly know that. In Return of the Jedi Luke says the exact same thing because as the son of Padme he knows it too because they are connected.
The whole moment of Padme losing the will to live is where Revenge of the Sith comes in strong. Padme losing the will to live sets up the rest of the Star Wars films and creates a purpose for the prequels that aren’t just telling us a story of what happened before the original trilogy but in fact telling us about how it became a story of family and loved ones. Star Wars is a Skywalker story and moments like that help viewers understand just how connected to each other the Skywalkers are. They are all strong with the force and that connects them but they are mainly connected with a real life force and that’s all their souls connecting to each other, guiding each other through their lives. Revenge of the Sith is a fantastic film because it was the first time in a long time that Lucas got his message to the forefront of the prequels and the emotion in the film is even more than the first two prequels combined. Haters can still hate Revenge of the Sith but its emotion is extremely high and deserves praise. Padme dying of losing the will to live is just simply the most realistic thing to happen in the Star Wars Universe.
Score: 4/5
Theories:
Kylo Ren is going to switch sides
Now this one is my own theory so hear me out a little here. If what I’ve said above is accurate and all of the Skywalkers are connected and they all guide each other than we could see a moment in The Last Jedi where Kylo Ren switches sides back to the Resistance and the Jedi. Kylo Ren is clearly being manipulated by Snoke and he is also clearly going crazy because of it but what if Kylo’s vision is being clouded by Snoke’s supreme power? Could we see a moment where Snoke either switches his focus to say Rey or Luke or even a moment where Kylo breaks free from a spell that he is under and ends up on the light side again? It would certainly make for an interesting next film as you’d have The Resistance vs The First Order with Kylo Ren not being accepted by either but needing to help out.
Rey is the granddaughter of Mace Windu
Look everyone wants Mace Windu to survive but he is obviously dead by the time The Force Awakens is set but maybe he did make it out alive and maybe he lived his life and ended up having a family and eventually his offspring had Rey and Rey is a strong force user like Mace is. To note though Rey isn’t really strong with the force at the moment and she is more skilled with a lightsaber and that is one of Mace Windu’s qualities that he is a skilled swordsman so there could be something there…but probably not.
Snoke is Jar Jar Binks
Nope.
The Qui-Gon is Rey’s grandfather theory from my Phantom Menace review continues.
The theory that I stated in my Phantom Menace review was about how Qui-Gon told Obi-Wan about his vision and how to balance the force and his plan. Rey is the granddaughter of Qui-Gon who sets a path in motion to rid of the Jedi Order and replace it with a new religious system that understood that even those who weren’t Jedi could have small force abilities. In Revenge of the Sith, Yoda tells Obi-Wan that he will teach him how to communicate with Qui-Gon, it’s a line that either is simply setting up how force ghosts work or a set up in the future to provide a story point that will help tell the story of Qui-Gon’s plan. Why put that line in there when people already know how force ghosts work and it’s not something that really needs to be explained on camera.