Revenge of the Sith: Production, Release, Redemption

And then Palpatine says to Anakin, “It was I who created you from the midiclorians and therefore I am your father!”

“Nooooooooooo!” Screams Anakin.

Though the previous lines may seem like something out of fan-fiction, they are based on a real scene that Lucas wrote, then discarded from the final draft of “Episode III”. Lucas, in fact, played with a lot of ideas while writing the film which would eventually be titled “Revenge of the Sith”. Early drafts include a 10-year-old Han Solo running around Kashyyyk (And why not- he’d already featured 10-year-old versions of Vader and Boba Fett).

As Lucas continued to write, he realized that he had a lot of splainin’ to do. How was he going to fit Anakin’s fall, Luke & Leia’s birth, the rise of the Empire, the death of the Jedi, and tie up all those loose ends (*cough* force ghosts) in one film? Lucas’ response? Let’s make a cyborg that fights with four arms and light sabers!  

A "Stylistic" decision with a hidden metaphor? Nope, just looks cool.

Thus General Grievous was born- the baddy of Episode III that appears to serve no actual purpose in the film (other than to look cool). And do you know how Lucas picked his name? Well according to dictionary.com Grevious means, “To cause great sorrow”.  Yes, just like previous prequel villain-names such as “Sideous” and “Tyranus”, Lucas wastes no energy trying to make his characters “morally ambiguous” in any way. Grievous is evil. How can you tell? Evil voice, evil name, evil character.

Another great example of this is how calm, collected, and peaceful Chancellor Palatine seems in the films, until he turns into Sideous, then he transforms into a totally different character all together. It’s almost like he has the split personality of Gollum and Smeagol. But the real truth is Lucas wants to make really, really sure that the kids know who is the good guys and who is the bad guys.

So when Sith turn evil they get yellow eyes and yellow teeth?

And perhaps this is what bothered me most about “Revenge of the Sith” when I saw it in cinemas eight-years ago; the lack of subtly. In the original Star Wars film (now known as “A New Hope”), the Empire was made up of crotchety-old Brits like Grand Moff Tarkin. There were respectful actors with lines such as “Perhaps she would respond to an alternative form of persuasion”. Even Vader was more of a strong silent-type.

See, kids, Anakin's the bad guy now. Root against him!

In the original Star Wars there were no Wicked-Witch-of-the-West-like cackles or  “Execute Order 66”. There were no bright-yellow Sith eyes. Palpaine was evil, but still smart and collected. Maybe “Evil-for-evil’s sake” was a bit too much for me to handle. Maybe it bothered me even more than Jar Jar Binks. Maybe on that fateful May night, the Saga had been spoiled for me forever.

I wonder how they came up with these numbers?

I walked out of the theater and vowed never to watch “Revenge of the Sith” ever again.

That night in the parking lot of Rogers Cinema, my friend Alex asked me why I didn’t like the film. What more did I want? My friend Corey would later tell me that fans had too high of expectations for the prequels and nothing could have ever satisfied us. But I reject that theory. I believed that left in the right hands, the Star Wars prequels could have been something…. watchable. Which is why for eight years I have never touched a copy of “Episode III”.

It's very subtle.
Look close and you might...
Oh... there it is.

 Yet all this will change on May 4^th, 2013. With news that Lucas has sold the rights to Star Wars to Disney, I have found New Hope. I now have the courage to finally go back and watch the film that I have sworn off for so long. On this May the Fourth (be with you), I will watch Episode III again and I will post my review of it here on this blogsite. See you next week!