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AFTER years of speculation and shattered hopes, the wait is over for the world’s army of Star Wars fans.

Episode Three: Revenge of the Sith (12A) bridges the gap between the disappointing Attack of the Clones and the legendary Star Wars and is Lucas’ darkest offering to date.

With the final battles of the Clone Wars raging across the galaxy, Senate leader Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) has been taken hostage by evil droid leader General Grievous.

Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) head off on a rescue mission which marks the start of a two-hour action-packed bloodbath.

But secretly married to the Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), Anakin’s fear of losing his soulmate starts to warp his mind.

Tempted by the prospect of protecting his pregnant wife, Anakin finds himself drawn to the evil Dark Side.

Sensing unrest in his apprentice, Obi-Wan faces the grim task of having to defeat Anakin for the good of the galaxy.

As Anakin’s paranoia spirals out of control, fans finally get to see the demise which leads to him becoming Darth Vader.

Episode Three is a journey to the Dark Side, with extraordinary battle scenes and enough death to earn the film a 12A certificate.

Yoda (Frank Oz) is on top-form and the shocking betrayals of key characters leave you gasping. Even Hayden Christensen is good - realising his best bet is to shut up and look mean.

A stunning end to the trilogy and it should leave even the snootiest geeks satisfied.

Rating: Five stars (out of five)

“Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” is George Lucas’ redemption film.

Both the highly anticipated “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” and “Star Wars: Episode II — The Attack of the Clones” did well at the box office but failed to wow critics and die-hard fans. Nothing could match what fans dreamed “Episode I” would be, waiting sixteen years for the beginning of the end to the “Star Wars” saga, but the first films also fell short in key areas, namely the acting and story line. The introduction of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in “Episode II” upped the bad acting even more.

It is nearly impossible to judge a film like this — the third in a series of six — on its own merits, especially given the classic status attained by the original “Star Wars.” The plot is tied to previously established story lines, so viewers know what is coming. Still, there was potential for “Episode III” to stand on its own and usher the series out with a bang. Most of the cast is back from the previous film, and a few favorites from the original trilogy make an appearance as well, most notably Chewbacca. There is even a cameo from the Millennium Falcon if you look closely.

The film picks up a few years after “Attack of the Clones.” Anakin has grown into a very powerful Jedi, yet still has not earned the trust of the Jedi council. His marriage to Padme (Natalie Portman) is still a secret, though that secrecy is threatened more each passing day by her pregnancy. After Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) successfully defeat Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), the search for the Sith Lord becomes the Jedi Council’s top priority and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine becomes a main suspect. The film spends a majority of its time on this particular subject. Anakin becomes torn between the Jedi way and the skills promised him by Palpatine.

Though it is interesting to watch the missing pieces fall into place as the film progresses toward its climax, the movie falters a bit along the way. Everyone knows the eventual outcome — the challenge to this and the previous two films was to find an interesting way to tell the story in between. The film could have been shorter and still told the story well — perhaps even better. Lucas’s biggest problem in the first three episodes goes back to a basic rule of filmmaking — show, don’t tell. There are quite a few action-packed moments in “Revenge of the Sith,” but they seem to come in chunks. Where the original films had a faster, more exciting pace, “Episode III” and the previous films have a jarring effect that consists of fast-paced action followed by slow expository dialogue or clunky romantic scenes — it’s more a book-on-tape approach than an actual filmmaking approach. The other downfall of “Revenge of the Sith” is Lucas’s obsession with using computer graphics for every

scene. While this can provide for some incredible action sequences, it also causes the film to lose a sense of realism. There is something organic about having the characters interact with aliens in costume rather than an animated character, and the lack of any real sets leaves the film looking more like a video game at times. George Lucas has been responsible for some amazing innovations in the film industry (see Industrial Light and Magic, Pixar and Avid if you need proof) but technology should still be used to advance the story, not the other way around.

Despite the negatives, “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” is by far the best of the first three episodes, and it does a good job of tying them all together. Christensen’s acting is somewhat improved, and in all fairness, when compared to Mark Hamill’s acting skills, Christensen doesn’t seem all that bad. If you have already seen the previous five movies, by all means finish what you’ve started. If this is your first “Star Wars” film, save your money, buy the original trilogy and be satisfied with those.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (out of four). Stars Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson. Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images.

Everyone already knows the plot of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Anakin Skywalker turns to the dark side of

the Force and becomes Darth Vader. However, knowing the plot before sitting down in the theater does nothing to detract from the overall experience. Revenge delivers everything that a fan could hope for - amazing special effects, colorful characters and, of course, some really cool light-saber duels.

Although the last two Star Wars movies may have left fans a little disappointed, Revenge will not. The dialogue is better and the pace faster. Die-hard fans will notice numerous echoes of the previous films, which help to tie the entire series together. Fight scenes, music and even some dialogue mirror the original trilogy and the two previous films.

Revenge also pulls at your emotions. You truly ache for those close to Anakin as they watch him fall farther and farther into the dark side. When characters die, you feel it.

However, Revenge is not a perfect film. The relationship between Anakin and Padme, although slightly more believable the second time around, is still strained and lacking any chemistry. Padme\’s character is also diminished. She is no longer the strong, forceful woman we have come to know. Instead, she is pushed into the background and given few scenes in which she isn\’t crying or angst-ridden. Although she is still a senator, she is seen in political surroundings only once, and the scene is far too brief.

There is still the problem of awkward dialogue and rushed scenes that have plagued all the Star Wars films, but it is less a problem here than in the most recent two.

Revenge is not a life-changing movie, but it never had to be. It accomplishes what it was made to do: Tell the final chapter of a story that has entertained for generations.

Not so long ago, in the not-so distant galaxy of California, a young filmmaker named George Lucas created a compelling space opera involving talking robots, deep space dog fights, intense lightsaber duels, and an epic struggle between “The Rebellion” and the Galactic Empire. As a new take on the timeless story of good versus evil, Lucas’ fascinating tale changed pop culture and cinema forever.

The “Star Wars” saga spawned the most successful movie and marketing franchise in history, as well as some of cinema’s most memorable characters, including noble Luke Skywalker, cocky Han Solo, the radiant Princess Leia, widely reviled Jar Jar Binks, and of course, Darth Vader, perhaps the most recognizable movie villain of all time.

Revolutionary as the original “Star Wars” trilogy was, it was decidedly apolitical. Such is not the case with Lucas’ latest films, three prequels to the original 1977 film. “Revenge of the Sith,” the last film in the “Star Wars” saga, is awash in political meaning, both general and quite specific to the present day United States.

“Revenge of the Sith” is the keystone to the entire “Star Wars” series: in two and a half hours of screen time we learn how the good Jedi Anakin Skywalker becomes evil Sith Lord Darth Vader, paralleled by the metamorphosis of a democratic Republic into the Galactic Empire. Through subtle and not so subtle language and imagery, George Lucas compares the events in the movie to what is happening at home and abroad.

In the “Star Wars” prequels, the snaky Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Senate, absorbs power by promising to restore peace to the democratic Republic, which is under attack by separatist forces that Palpatine secretly controls.

To gain absolute power, Palpatine convinces senators from across the galaxy that the Jedi are plotting to overthrow him. His lies fool the politicians, as well as the young Jedi Anakin Skywalker. Palpatine lures Anakin to the dark side by promising to save Anakin’s wife Padme from a death Anakin envisions in his nightmares. After becoming Palpatine’s new apprentice, Anakin slaughters the Jedi and separatists with Palpatine’s army of human clone warriors.

Since 9/11, the Bush administration has used our collective fear of terrorism just as Emperor Palpatine used the Clone Wars: to increase the executive branch’s power at home, and increase America’s power abroad.

Like Palpatine, the Bush administration has been able to feed on people’s fears to gain more power. The regular (and many think politically motivated) changing of the color-coded terror “threat advisory” level system is just one telling example.

The Bush administration has also toyed with citizens’ emotions by using 9/11 images constantly in speeches, invoking images of burning buildings and grieving families to promote the war in Iraq and various domestic policies, such as the Patriot Act, that often limit freedoms in the name of national security.

In the “Star Wars” universe, Palpatine spent years plotting to launch a war and build a massive, unstoppable army to dominate the Republic. Now, it is becoming more obvious that the Bush administration planned to invade Iraq since coming to office.

Journalist Greg Palast recently published a timeline that shows the State Department began planning to remove Saddam Hussein from power as early as February of 2001. The recently publicized and much debated Downing Street memos also argue that the Bush administration hungered to topple Saddam far before any bombs fell in Baghdad.

The memos state that British and U.S. officials met in July of 2002, months before Congress was consulted about the war. According to the memos, intelligence was being “fixed around the policy.”

Among the many shifting reasons President Bush and his staff gave for launching a war on Iraq, fear played a large part in the perceived threat of Saddam Hussein’s WMDs. And just as Palpatine claimed that waging the Clone Wars and killing the Jedi would “restore peace to the galaxy,” so has Bush announced that ousting Saddam would allow peace, democracy, and prosperity to blossom throughout the Middle East.

Some of the dialogue in “Revenge of the Sith” also seems inspired by post-9/11 United States policy. “You’re either with me, or you’re my enemy,” Anakin tells his former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi at the end of the film, while the Jedi Knights clash in a lightsaber duel. And soon after 9/11, Bush declared to the world, “you are either with us or against us.”

There are other lines in the film that reflect current U.S. politics. When Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Mace Windu, leads a group of Jedi to arrest Palpatine, the power-hungry tyrant hisses, “I am the Senate.” One can’t help but wonder if Lucas stole that line from the Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who reportedly once said: “I am the government.”

Recently, some conservative groups called for a boycott of “Revenge of the Sith” after its creator, director and producer, George Lucas, commented on the political content of his movies at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

“Because this is the back story (of the “Star Wars” saga), one of the main features of the back story was to tell how the Republic became the Empire,” Lucas said at the festival. “I hope this doesn’t come true in our country. Maybe the film will awaken people to how dangerous this situation is,” he said.

Actor Hayden Christensen, who starred in the film as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, also commented on the political content of the film. Before the film’s release on May 19th, the Ottawa Sun asked the young actor if the film “takes metaphoric shots at the war mongering politics of U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and the two George Bushes.” Christensen answered, “absolutely.”

“I think for that reason the French will be really responsive to it,” Christensen added. ” I think they’ll get it. They’ll get the political commentary and the subtext. Anakin says: ‘If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy!’ I think they’ll love it.”

Conservatives can boycott the film or complain about some of its political undertones, but that has not halted the “Star Wars” juggernaut. In its four day opening release, “Revenge of the Sith” made over $158 million at the U.S. box office, pulverizing records. Worldwide, the film grossed more than $300 million its opening weekend.

The film’s stunning success helped it to reach $200 and $300 million at the domestic box office faster than any film in history.

But will box office success also spread Lucas’ political ideas? Some fans developed strong reactions to the politics in “Sith.” “It had political relevance because it dealt with power which had no checks and balances,” said 20-year old Vanessa Holwitt, who saw the film on its opening weekend. “I don’t think the undertones were in-your face-obvious. They were more subtle,” Holwitt added.

“The action sequences will make people forget how much politics is actually in the film,” said 21-year old “Star Wars” fan Matt Haley.

But Haley said he didn’t see any political parallels between “Revenge of the Sith” and the United States. Instead, he sees a stronger resemblance between the Galactic Empire and Nazi Germany.

Not everyone equated the movie to modern politics. Long-time “Star Wars” fanatic Tom Goode, who brags about his impressive boxed collection of “Star Wars” action figures, also found no political similarities between “Sith” and United States politics. “I didn’t feel any lines were jabs at the Bush administration,” he said. “The movie may have been based on any number of historical events or eras. Don’t forget, Lucas had a lot of this written 35 years ago.”

Politics aside, the final prequel seemed to satisfy fans of the saga. “The back story made me think differently about Darth Vader. I don’t see him as completely evil now,” Holwitt said.

Matt Haley agreed. “Anakin’s fall from grace was very believable. He was put in a very abnormal position, and he tried to do what he thought was right,” he said.

Despite “Episode III,” some fans will still not forgive Lucas for the first two prequels. Goode called the films “extremely pointless” to the saga, while also stating that Lucas should have had someone else write the screenplays for the prequels.

Through the use of captivating special effects and a powerful, long-waited storyline, Lucas has drawn strong reactions from fans with “Revenge of the Sith.” Despite some stiff acting and stiffer dialogue, Lucas has managed to create an enormously successful and entertaining film that also warns us about the dangers of war, greed, and empire.

Movie name: “Shattered Glass”

MPAA rating: PG-13

Genre: Drama

Stars: Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny

Overall: Wait for a video-store coupon.

Plot: In the 1990s, Stephen Glass was a journalistic prodigy. By the tender age of 24, he was already writing for such prestigious publications as Rolling Stone and The New Republic, and his perpetually exclusive and fantastic pieces made his work very much in demand.

In fact, his unceasing aptitude for being able to always sniff out such shocking and captivating stories, at times, seemed too good to be true.

That’s because it was.

Looks can be deceiving, and so can journalists, as the nation soon discovered after it was revealed that more than half of Glass’ works written at The New Republic were either partially or completely fabricated.

“Shattered Glass” portrays the man and events that led up to a controversy that helped to forever change the public’s view of journalism.

Does it deserve its rating? “Shattered Glass” is rated PG-13 for moderate sprinkling of profanity, and for a few sexual innuendos.

Favorite scene: The best scenes are toward the end, so I won’t go into detail and give anything away.

Leave on the cutting room floor: As I previously stated, the best scenes are at the end, and this is largely because most of the beginning scenes are rather drawn out and boring.

Yeah, I know they have to introduce the characters and setting and everything, but it seems they could have made it a little shorter, or at least more interesting.

Top Performer: After aching through “Star Wars: Episode Two,” I was very impressed to find that, contrary to popular belief, Hayden Christensen does indeed have acting skills. Good acting skills, at that. He portrayed Glass in such a way that I felt sympathy and disdain for him at the same time. Peter Sarsgaard was also great and won four acting awards for his efforts.

Flop Performer: If I had to pick a flop performer, it would probably have to be the writer who dragged out the beginning. But other than that, no complaints.

Compare it to: I have only seen one other movie with Christensen in it, but I’d say this is his best work so far. Not an Oscar-worthy performance, but at least in this movie he had a script to work with. (Unlike in a certain “Star Wars” movie that shall remain nameless)

Afterthoughts: Not on my “Favorite Movies of All-Time” list, but tolerable enough. The DVD features a “60 Minutes” interview with the real Stephen Glass.

I’d like to preface this review with a small caveat emptor: I was rooting for Episode III to be great. I would’ve settled for good, but I secretly wanted something spectacular. So if you like, take my opinion on the One Movie About Which Everyone Has an Opinion with a grain of salt — I’m a Star Wars fan, and while it’s fun to sit around and complain about Jar-Jar, at the end of the day, I really want to love a Star Wars movie.

That said, let’s start with the part you already know: this is the Greek tragedy of the saga, in which Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) gives in to his fear, which leads to anger, which leads to hate, which leads to that awesome black mask at the helm of the Death Star. But that’s less important than the question on the lips of George Lucas’ nation of wounded geeks which is, simply put: ‘does it suck as bad as the other two?’ The answer: no, little fanboy.

Actually, it’s pretty great.

There are many things that set this movie apart from its two lackluster predecessors, the most noteworthy being, at last, a human element that feels convincing. For the first time, the camaraderie between Anakin and Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) seems genuine; consequently, their clash at the movie’s climax is more poignant than any other part of the prequels. In fact, the characters’ interaction has improved across the board. Though the often-extraneous CGI remains, the actors seem less stiff, more invested in the material, and more passionate in their delivery. A few jokes bomb predictably, and some of the dialogue is as clunky as ever, but these elements somehow fail to mute the greater emotional resonance of the film. Appropriately, the showstopper is Ian McDiarmid, finally ‘revealed’ as Darth Sidious. His cunning, methodical manipulation of Anakin is note-perfect, and his performance brings out the best in his co-stars, especially Christensen, who hopefully will get less crap after this movie. He finally gets to play pre-Vader Anakin as fans always imagined him: jealous, impulsive, and ultimately dangerous.

While watching this film, I was happy to note how much was repaired. Gone are the goofy animated sidekicks (Jar-Jar, while not tortured or beheaded like we all hoped, at least doesn’t have a speaking role). Also blessedly absent is the not-ready-for-C-Span politicking. Instead of beginning Episode III with another 45-minute lecture on ‘trade disputes,’ Lucas plunges the viewer headlong into the Clone Wars with possibly the best space battle sequence of the entire series. While the political wrangling of the previous films is still present, this time it’s actually compelling, in no small part because it ends in a bloody coup.

Finally, there’s a certain satisfaction in how well Lucas links this final film to his original trilogy. There are enough ambiguities to keep fans arguing for years, but the plot’s transition into Episode IV has a remarkable fluidity. I’m disappointed that it took this long to get another good Star Wars movie, and I’m sad that it’s the last one. But I believe that in due time, Revenge of the Sith will generally be considered one of the best in the saga. All things considered, that’s not a bad ending to the journey that started a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

“Twisted by the Dark Side, young Skywalker has become. The boy you trained, gone he is. Consumed by Darth Vader.”
- Yoda (Frank Oz)

Review By: Joel Cunningham
Published: October 10, 2021

Stars: Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid
Other Stars: Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Oz, Christopher Lee, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Jimmy Smits, Temuera Morrison
Director: George Lucas

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images
Run Time: 02h:19m:58s
Release Date: November 01, 2021
UPC: 024543203094
Genre: sci-fi

DVD Review
Many Star Wars fans have turned grousing about the prequel trilogy into a full-time pursuit (and god knows there’s enough wrong with The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones to keep them busy), but by and large, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith seems to have brought most back into the fold of the faithful Lucas Army. But why? Doesn’t Sith exhibit the same glaring flaws as its predecessors (chief among them: flat dialogue, wooden actors, robotic characters, a total lack of genuine heart and humor)? The answer is, sadly, yes. But it also includes all the good parts that fans have been waiting over 20 years to see: the Clone Wars, the destruction of the Jedi, and the emergence of a guy who looks really good in black.

Speaking strictly in terms of the plot, it would have been pretty hard for Lucas to screw up Sith. He’s admitted that the majority of the backstory he created for the original trilogy is contained in this, the third film in the six-film series, bridging the gap between the forbidden marriage of Senator Amidala (Natalie Portman) and impetuous Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) that ended Attack of the Clones and the dark specter of Darth Vader that emerges in A New Hope. Because the conclusion is never in doubt, the story takes on overtones of epic tragedy. The audience knows that Anakin will eventually fall to the Dark Side of the Force, seduced by the silver-tongued Lord of the Sith, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), nee Darth Sidious, the future Emperor, and that he’ll be strapped into a fashionable iron lung after a climactic battle with his mentor, Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor).

In theory, anyway. Despite its operatic tone, Revenge of the Sith is rarely more emotionally engaging than either of the previous prequels, pointing to the chief problem with Lucas’ rendering of the Star Wars backstory. Though the two trilogies are linked in terms of story, they are separated by a great divide—character. Simply put, I cared about the characters in the original films. I wanted the rebels to defeat the evil Empire. I wanted Luke to become a Jedi and resist the Dark Side. I wanted Han and Leia to get together. But the recent movies haven’t focused on characters at all, but the plot mechanics that drive them. With a clear endpoint in sight, Lucas put more effort into moving the pieces around on the board to get everything set for the final battle than he did actually making sure his audience cared about the outcome. Without the emotional investment of the iconic films and characters, would anyone care about the fate of whiney, weak-willed Anakin or the simpering Amidala? (Especially considering their dull romance is the cause for the suffering of untold millions, and I’m not talking about those of us who cringed as they rolled around in the grass and made elaborate sand metaphors about one another in Attack of the Clones.)

Maybe not, but the answer is inconsequential anyway, as Revenge of the Sith is what it is, and does its job as well as could be expected, given the limitations of the previous two films. This isn’t a great movie by any means, and it still lacks the spark and strong characters that drove the original trilogy, but it is an entertaining illustration of a story most fans probably already knew by heart, and it happily eschews the pandering kid-friendly side characters and moments of bodily humor that plagued the previous prequels. The battles are suitably epic—the story opens with a stunning firefight over the capital world of Coruscant as Anakin and Obi-Wan race to rescue Palpatine from an apparent kidnapping attempt by the vicious General Grievous, this film’s Darth Maul stand-in. And there are plenty of great lightsaber battles (more, in fact, than the other five movies combined), including the expected, lava planet blowout between Anakin and Obi-Wan that’s been a long time coming.

The special effects are the real star, and Lucas’ team of digital wizards has done wonders, creating entire worlds with the click of a mouse and breathing life into Yoda (Frank Oz), who gives the best performance in the film, despite the pesky fact that he doesn’t exist. And though Palpatine’s attempts to turn Anakin, destroy the Jedi, and manipulate the galaxy into his grasp are interesting enough (if nothing else, Lucas proves he understands that any good politician motivates through fear, and McDiarmid plays the wise leader as well as he does the maniacal, lightning-spewing demon), those plot points pale in comparison to, say, Yoda’s saber duel with the Sith Lord, or Obi-Wan’s struggle against the six-limbed Grievous.

In the end, Revenge of the Sith is an entertaining, action-packed film and the first of the prequel trilogy to really live up to its forebears. I don’t really believe it when Anakin turns abruptly to the Dark Side, but watching the fall of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire in undeniably compelling (and occasionally a little graphic—there’s a reason this, the darkest of the series, earned a PG-13 rating), and his character arc sheds new light on the chief villain of episodes four through six. I just wish there were a few more characters I cared about in the midst of all the drama.

Rating for Style: A
Rating for Substance: B

Image Transfer Review: Episode III was filmed digitally, and this direct digital transfer looks about as good as a DVD can. The picture is sharp and clear, with gorgeous colors and wonderful detail. The picture is entirely free of edge enhancement and artifacting, and I noted no digital noise at all. It’s hard to imagine this movie could look any better save in high definition.

Image Transfer Grade: A+
Audio Transfer Review: All the Star Wars movies benefit from strong audio tracks, but Episode III has the best of the bunch. The 5.1 EX mix makes constant use of all the channels in both subtle and dynamic ways. In quieter scenes, the surrounds carry the score and add background atmosphere. In more bombastic moments, ships and explosions fly past from every direction. Through it all, of course, dialogue comes through clearly and naturally. The opening battle over Coruscant is sure to be an oft-played scene for audiophiles looking to show off their gear.

Audio Transfer Grade: A+

Disc Extras
Full Motion menu with music
Scene Access with 50 cues and remote access
Subtitles/Captions in English with remote access
2 Original Trailer(s)
15 TV Spots/Teasers
6 Deleted Scenes
1 Documentaries
17 Featurette(s)
1 Feature/Episode commentary by director George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, animation director Rob Coleman, visual effects supervisors John Knoll and Roger Guyett
Packaging: Amaray Double
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: RSDL

Extra Extras:
A Hero Falls music video
Poster, print, and production galleries
Extras Review: This is the final Star Wars film to come to DVD, and to be honest, I’m getting a little bored with bonus features examining the now-familiar galaxy far, far away. The extras on this set are similarly assembled but less entertaining than those on the Episode I and Episode II DVDs, let alone the original trilogy boxed set. Still, Star Wars fans aren’t generally known for being discriminating, and the faithful will find some interesting stuff here.

The only extra on Disc 1 is a commentary track featuring director George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, animation director Rob Coleman, and special effects gurus John Knoll and Roger Guyett. As with the tracks on the other five films in the series, this is a pretty dry, slow-going affair, with Lucas focusing on story and the tech geeks talking about their own work. Lucas’ comments in particular are fairly maddening, as he points out the obvious intricacies of the plot and touches on character motivation and emotional journies—all elements that are handled somewhat clumsily (or worse) in the final film.

Documentaries and Featurettes houses the crown jewel of Disc 2, Within a Minute, a 78-minute exploration into the hundreds of people and thousands of man-hours that went into creating a portion of the final lightsaber duel that lasts less than a minute in its final form. Actors, directors, producers, the art department, sets and props, digital artists… this piece puts a face on all those names that flash by during the end credits. While this is a worthwhile and unique documentary, it goes so in-depth it becomes a little monotonous after a while. I would have preferred a more sweeping conclusion to the making-of saga (akin to the fly-on-the-wall doc from the Episode I DVD), but it’s nevertheless a strong piece.

The Chosen One (14m:37s) traces Darth Vader’s path through Revenge of the Sith, featuring interviews with Christensen and Lucas and a good amount of behind-the-scenes footage (most of it in front of a blue screen, of course). It’s interesting enough, if a little inconsequential, but viewers will want to keep an eye out for a brief clip of Yoda speaking perhaps the only memorable line of dialogue from Episode I—the odd, drugged-out puppet is gone, replaced by the now-familiar all-digital creature. The next home video release of Episode I will likely include this much-improved version of the character.

It’s All for Real (11m:04s) focuses on the stunts, choreographed as always by swordsman Nick Gillard, who talks about how the fighting was intensified for Episode III without resorting too much to digital actors.

Six deleted scenes are included, most of them in what appears to be final form. The best of the bunch—three short sequences that show Padme starting what would later become the Rebel Alliance—should probably have been left in (if only to give Natalie Portman something to do besides weep in her apartment), and fans are finally given a chance to see Yoda arrive on Dagobah for his self-imposed exile. All scenes include an introduction from Lucas and McCallum explaining why they were ultimately deleted.

The trailers and TV spots gallery collects the teaser and theatrical trailer and 15 television ads along with the A Hero Falls music video. Web Documentaries preserves the 15-part making-of series that was posted to the Star Wars website in the year leading up to the film’s release. Finally, Video Games and Still Galleries houses a collection of production photos, one-sheet designs from different countries (though really, only the text changes), and images from the outdoor print campaign. There are also trailers for the forthcoming games Star Wars Battlefront II (coming out the same day as the Episode III DVD) and . X-Box users can also demo two levels of the former.

Once again, the discs are very well produced, with fancy 3-D menus that recall three different planets and a number of buried easter eggs (the only one I was able to access, which features Yoda break-dancing, can be located by using the remote to enter “1138″ from the main menu of Disc 1).

Extras Grade: B+

Final Comments
The wait is over—the Star Wars saga is finally complete on DVD, and Revenge of the Sith is nothing short of stunning. With each release in the series, Lucasfilm has set the visual and audio quality standard against which all other DVDs are judged, and this time is no different. The picture and sound are likely better than you experienced in the theater and all of the bonus features are actually worth watching (an achievement in and of itself).
Source of this article :

A colleague here at work refuses to buy the DVD of “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” when it goes on sale Tuesday. He’s convinced tinkering with “Star Wars” won’t end until George Lucas is dead.

That’s too bad. He’ll miss the new shock ending, in which Luke wakes up on Tatooine and it turns out that the whole six-movie series was a dream.

No! Stop throwing things! I’m kidding! Kidding!

But Lucas could do that, couldn’t he? With the ever-leaping bounds technology makes, if the master of the “Star Wars” universe decides his tale needs a new scene, or a change here or there, he could tweak “Sith” and the other movies until he’s finally satisfied — until the next time.

Lucas won’t do that, of course — not anymore, anyway. He’s said the story is told and he’s made the movies he wanted to make — and he’s already altered the videos of the first trilogy to his satisfaction.

Indeed, that’s why some fans are worried. Lucas changed “Star Wars” to show that Greedo shot first — not Han Solo — and added Hayden Christensen, the Darth Vader of the most recently produced episodes, to the pantheon at the end of 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” Christensen the person was 2 years old at the time.

Lucas isn’t the only one. Steven Spielberg tweaked “E.T.’s” DVD to change the police officers’ guns to walkie-talkies; he thought the moment too violent. And then there are the countless “special edition” DVDs that include footage that didn’t make it to the big screen — footage that may not change any major plot points, but still shows sides of characters not available to the theater-going audience.

Movies aren’t the only art that may be changed by the artist — or somebody else, without the artist’s consent.

Brian Wilson, working with a co-producer, put out the Beach Boys’ classic “Pet Sounds” (originally in mono) in stereo a few years ago. Dozens of Jimi Hendrix tracks, some no more than extended doodling, have been released in his name since his death.

A “new” Truman Capote novel, “Summer Crossing,” came out Tuesday. It actually dates from the 1940s. Who knows if Capote would have released it, or if he would have wanted to make wholesale changes in it? For that matter, Capote’s post-”In Cold Blood” opus, “Answered Prayers,” was finally released — unfinished — in the early ’90s.

And on and on.

When does it end? When the author/creator says it does, when the public is sated, or when the contract is up?

Eye on Entertainment looks at “Revenge.”

Eye-opener
The DVD of “Sith” does come with a host of extras, all Lucas-approved.

There are a number of deleted scenes, introduced by Lucas and producer Rick McCallum. There are Web documentaries, trailers, promos for video games and a music video.

Lucas has a commentary track, as does McCallum, animation director Rob Coleman and Industrial Light and Magic visual effects supervisors John Knoll and Roger Guyett.

But, apparently, the movie will be the one seen in theaters last May, the film that remains the No. 1 grossing film of 2005.

Lucas really doesn’t have to worry about the films anymore. There’s a whole “Star Wars” empire out there now — books, video games, action figures — and he’ll have his hands full devising storylines for all that, if he so desires.

In fact, some of those stories may not be his, anyway. One of the charms of video games is that the player becomes a character in the story, and technology being what it is, the permutations are becoming endless.

So, perhaps, “Star Wars” has become a classic sci-fi multiverse conundrum, with alternate histories and varied points of view. Maybe, in one version, Darth Vader didn’t even exist. Or Luke died in a tragic hovercraft accident.

Though Han Solo really did shoot first.

“Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” comes out on DVD Tuesday.

OK, admit it. You’re going to rush out Tuesday and buy the latest “Star Wars” DVD.
You aren’t going to do this because “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” was far superior to the previous two films, which, well, sucked. You bought those DVDs, too. And you don’t know why. It was as if you were under some sort of generational obligation to the franchise.
Well, relax. Now you can buy a “Star Wars” DVD openly and without rationalizations (someday my kid might like that pod-racing brat) or denials (Jar-Jar was just misunderstood). Having seen a selection of the extras on the upcoming DVD, I can attest that the film and special features will finally delight even a 30-year “Star Wars” veteran
For one, the producers promise several deleted scenes. This includes the long-awaited one that shows Yoda, following his flight from the emperor, arriving on Dagobah, where we finally met him in “The Empire Strikes Back.”

But the special features’ strength is largely due to the time spent exploring the six films’ continuity, which Lucas strove for in minute detail.

In “The Chosen One,” a documentary chronicling the story of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader through the cinematic sextet, we get to see the effort that went into matching Hayden Christensen’s Skywalker with the face we finally saw at the end of “Return of the Jedi.” The art crew even ensured that the scarring of the older Vader’s face matched that of Christensen’s charred character at the end of “Sith.”

The attention to continuity runs throughout the features. We see Ewan McGregor impressively transformed into a young Sir Alec Guinness to match the elder Obi-Wan. This might seem apparent in the films themselves, but it is even more striking to see makeup artists work from a photo of Guinness to duplicate his hairline.

Indeed, Lucas even matched the lightsaber Kenobi picks up after his duel with Skywalker at the end of “Sith” to the 1970s model handed to Luke — the one he was told belonged to his father. One scene shows the director perusing a lineup of sabers that Anakin used throughout his six-film swordplay career.

This same continuity resonated narratively in “Sith,” and made longtime fans embrace the film after a pair of disappointments. It paid off all the backstory glimpses in the books and all the action figure fantasy duels we concocted as kids: Obi-Wan versus Anakin, Yoda versus the Emperor.

“Sith” also provided vindicating details I only wish I could send my third-grade classmates in a memo: See, I told you Darth Vader was made in a volcano — and no, I never suggested his suit was a blackened version of the X-wing getup. And furthermore, all of you who laughed at me for toting a green lightsaber when I came dressed as Yoda for Halloween: Eat it.

I’ve heard others in my generation say it, and I suppose I must concur: Even though the first two episodes left much to be desired, Lucas redeemed himself with “Sith.” In so doing, he made the wait for another “Star Wars” trilogy — which for me began with his 1987 interview on Nickelodeon, when he hinted at another film — worth it.

That said, let’s hope it’s over. The series is on a high note. I don’t think the franchise should risk a “Star Wars: Episode VII,” or even a “Star Wars: Episode III 1/2” exploring the 15-20 “lost” years between the two films.

Let’s relegate that remaining material to video games and cartoon shorts, George. For instance, let’s forgo another TV movie about the Ewoks and maybe focus on a revival of “Droids.”

So enjoy “Sith,” but don’t bother trying to watch the first two DVDs before viewing the new one, something you always plan but never accomplish. We know you’ve never actually made it all the way through your copy of “Phantom Menace.” So why start now?

The Dark Side has been very good to George Lucas.

Spike TV recently paid nearly $70 million for a six-year exclusive deal covering all six movies in his “Star Wars” franchise, and Lucas was presented with the Hollywood Film Festival’s Movie of the Year award, based on online voting. At the top was “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” in which evil has a field day.

So much money, so much adoration, and Lucas is about to reap more of both.

Tuesday’s DVD release of the two-disc “Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith” (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, $29.98 wide screen or full screen) brings the movie into homes and invites fans to bask in the geek’s paradise that is Disc Two.

The centerpiece is the documentary “Within a Minute,” a 1-hour, 17-minute trip into the minutiae of Scene 158: That’s 49 seconds of the climactic light-saber duel on Mustafar, a red-hot lava planet that’s been bubbling and churning in Lucas’ mind for decades. Staggering among the numbers to hit the screen is the more than 70,000 man-hours of work to show Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin (Hayden Christensen) in their death-defying battle.

Even the caterers get their due, along with the 910 artists whose hand-drawn, hand-crafted and computer-generated work all figure into the final product.

Director/writer/creator Lucas reveals his nonconfrontational approach when he explains how he would tell an artist that his efforts, glorious though they may be, wouldn’t make the final cut: Lucas would blame Steven Spielberg, who was not present but whom he had asked to consult on the sequence.

Producer Rick McCallum narrates each segment — presented as family trees of departments such as Pre-Visualization, VFX Supervisors, Digital and Practical Modeling and on and on — leading up to the Final Screening. Prominent among the hundreds of workers is Ben Burtt, the Allegheny College graduate who, with Roger Barton, edited the film.

Perhaps mindful that acting doesn’t always get much due amid the “Star Wars” special-effects juggernaut, McCallum credits McGregor and Christensen with pulling off a highly charged emotional scene with only green screens as a backdrop.

“At the end of the day, if you don’t believe in what they are doing … then all of this work everyone else is doing is meaningless.”

In a shorter documentary, “The Chosen One,” Lucas explains that “I like the idea” that viewers who thought of Vader as a villain in the original series can now see him as a victim, seduced to the Dark Side by Chancellor Palpatine.

“When you’re a kid,” says Christensen, looking so like a kid himself, minus the makeup and the glare, “he’s the pinnacle of evil. The man of mystery behind the mask.” The mask Christensen finally dons, to cheers from the crew and cast.

A gem of the Deleted Scenes section of the DVD is “Exiled to Dagobah,” in which a small craft hurtles toward a planet, then lands in a swamp. The door is lowered to reveal Yoda, arriving at what will be his home for the rest of his life. It’s also the place, as every “Star Wars” fan knows, where Luke will discover the diminutive Jedi master and be trained in the ways of the Force.

The deleted scenes each have optional introductions by McCallum and Lucas.

Other extras include a tribute to the stunt team and making-of Web documentaries available here in full-screen resolution.

Tuesday isn’t just the release date of the DVD — “Star Wars Battlefront II” hits stores for Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC and Sony PSP. The Episode III DVD includes a playable Xbox demo and a trailer, as well as the trailer for another game, “Star Wars: Empire at War.”

If you’re hungering for more, and plenty of it, this DVD — like other “Star Wars” episode DVDs before it — also serves as a gateway to online exclusives at dvd.starwars.com.

If you can handle all that, then the Force is, indeed, with you.

Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) (PG-13, 2005)
‘Sith’ arrives on two discs and with lots of bonus features
Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is a Jedi with a problem — several of them, actually. He’s having nightmares about his pregnant wife. His best friends do not approve of his political mentor. And it’s beginning to look as if the Clone Wars were just a distraction from a greater threat to the Republic. It’s enough to lure a guy to the Dark Side of the Force. Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee star in the conclusion of George Lucas’ space trilogy. The dialogue is as lame as ever, but the action scenes are exciting and the story beautifully knits together the new trilogy and the old. Available on separate wide-screen and full-screen DVDs. The two-disc sets’ bonus features include audio commentary, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes footage and documentaries. Violence and gore. 2 hours 20 minutes.

And so it ends - in the middle. “Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith,” the last part in the second (or rather the first) trilogy in George Lucas’ far, far away saga, comes to DVD on Tuesday (Fox, 140 mins., PG-13, $29.98).

We can’t say we didn’t know how this one was going to wind up. Twentysomething Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), fearing the loss of his pregnant wife (Natalie Portman), succumbs to the evil emperor’s invitation to join the Dark Side, setting up a climactic light saber duel between Anakin and his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor).

When all the digital dust settles, Anakin will don the black helmet and acquire James Earl Jones’ baritone to become Sith bad boy Darth Vader. Which will bring us back to the future and the start of 1977’s “Star Wars,” wherein an older Vader will be at war with the now-grown twins he abandoned, Luke and Leia.

Fans of the series seemed to agree that “Sith,” released in theaters last May, was the best of the new trilogy. So they won’t be disappointed by Fox’s two-disk presentation. Besides the movie - which has been “captured and created directly from the digital source” - there are six “deleted” scenes illogically “created” for the DVD, Web features and a full-length making-of documentary that, like the movie itself, is impressively detailed and a touch tiresome. Lucas and others in his circle provide commentary.

Star Wars fans with a spare 13-plus hours (not counting extras) can now watch the groundbreaking saga from start to finish.

With Tuesday’s release of Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Fox, $30), all six films are on DVD.

“People will be able to watch it as one linear story, which was George’s original intention,” says Hayden Christensen. He played Anakin Skywalker in this year’s Sith and 2002’s Attack of the Clones.

Sith grossed $380.3 million as it lured back some of the audience lost by 2002’s Clones, which earned only $310.7 million, a big drop from $431.1 million for 1999’s Phantom Menace.Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) was the saga’s biggest at the box office with $461 million.

In this week’s battle of the heavyweight DVD releases, Lucas’ Sith is likely to beat Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and be among the year’s top sellers, says Scott Hettrick, home entertainment editor for DVD Exclusive magazine. Sith, he says, “is the final chapter in the saga that anyone who has ever been a fan of Star Wars will want to own.”

As with Menace and Clones, the DVD for Sith offers lavish extras:

•Within a Minute: The Making of Episode III, a 78-minute segment, chronicles the 70,441 hours it took to create 60 seconds of Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber duel. “It’s rather extraordinary, the separate departments and number of people whose skills are involved to make this one minute,” says Ian McDiarmid, who plays Supreme Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious.

• Among the six deleted scenes is Yoda’s arrival on Dagobah, where Luke Skywalker finds him in The Empire Strikes Back.

• There are two levels of the Xbox version of the Star Wars Battlefront II video game and an Easter egg that shows Yoda dancing to a hip-hop beat.

Top five moments

We asked a Jedi Council of Star Wars fans for favoritemoments. The top five, and how to cue them on DVD:

The DVD of George Lucas’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the last film in the futuristic box office hit series, has been released. Besides the film, the DVD also chronicles the making of the film, and has hidden ‘Easter eggs’ that show some surprising acts.

In addition, it reveals some of the scenes that were deleted while editing as also the creation of the lightsaber fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The DVD set, which comes with two discs, is priced at US$ 30.

One interesting feature of the DVD is Within A Minute, which is the name given to the abovementioned lightsaber duel. The duel, which lasts 60 seconds in the film, used 910 technicians for 26 shots. Narrated by Producer Rick McCallum, the feature, which is under the Making of the Episode III option, shows that 70,000 man hours were required to effectively construct the dueling sequence.

“It’s rather extraordinary, the separate departments and number of people whose skills are involved to make this one minute,” Ian McDiarmid, who was cast in the role of Darth Sidious, said of the sequence.

Added Rick McCallum, “This is all real. They really went at it. It’s not sped up. And, of course, Hayden (Christensen, who played Anakin) and Ewan (McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi) love this.” He added that though many felt that the special effects in Star Wars were shot on ‘blue screen’, the team ‘actually built 72 really large sets on the film’. “But because there are so many different planets, there is always some part of the sequence that has blue screen in it,” McCallum explained.

The Making of the Episode III also shows the six scenes that were entirely clipped off to keep the film, which ironically spanned 140 minutes in spite of editing, short. One memorable scene that was edited out was that of Yoda returning to Dagobah to spend the rest of his life there. No action sequence, however, has been lopped off, with only chatty scenes, like one of Padme and the senators discussing Palpatine, being removed.

Added to the DVD are comments by and interviews with creator George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, animator Rob Coleman, and special effects experts John Knoll and Roger Guyett. The ‘Easter eggs’, one of which shows master Yoda hot stepping to the beats of a popular hip-hop track, hidden in the DVD can be accessed by pressing 1138 after reaching the language menu.

For those who loved the film, the DVD promises to be even better. And of course, it brings the Star Wars experience a full circle.