Watching older blockbusters in 2025 can sometimes lead one to wonder “where did we go wrong?” Gazing upon even once-divisive blockbusters from the 90s and 2000s on the big screen inevitably inspires contemplations of elements absent from modern costly movies. Strangely, re-watching Revenge of the Sith in theaters for its 20th anniversary didn’t instill this sensation in my bones.
On the contrary, the final entry in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy was, if anything, a harbinger of our modern blockbuster movie landscape. Excessive CG backdrops plaguing countless 2020s superhero movies dominate Sith’s visual scheme. Fan-service (“Yoda knew Chewbacca, did you know that?”) is peppered throughout the runtime. Digital cinematography making everything look sterile is inescapable. Watching Spider-Man or Independence Day in 2025, it’s not hard to go “take notes, Deadpool & Wolverine!” Revenge of the Sith, meanwhile, could’ve come out last week. Time is a flat circle. I guess that’s just part of the pathway to many abilities some consider un-natural.
You know the story of Revenge of the Sith. Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) plunges into the Dark Side after two prior Prequel Trilogy entries of set-up. His long-simmering resentment towards the Jedi council and especially a desire to protect pregnant wife Padme (Natalie Portman) help solidify his descent into evil. There’s also subplots about the cough-heavy General Grievous (Matthew Wood), Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) consolidating power in the Galactic Senate, and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) saying “hello there!” If you’re above the age of 25, then you’re also familiar with any of typical Prequel Trilogy problems.
Lest we forget, these movies were the most despised things on the planet until kids who grew up with them got old enough to start Reddit accounts. You don’t need me to tell you that the conversation-heavy love scenes in Revenge of the Sith are tepid. It’s common knowledge. Still, revisiting Sith on the big screen* made me more aware than ever of the massive gulf in quality between the dialogue scenes and the grander space opera battle sequences. Make no mistake, director George Lucas has a good eye for expansive imagery occasionally harkening back to vintage paintings.
Bombastic touches like General Grievous unloading all four of his Lightsaber-adorned arms, characters dramatically tossing off their capes and cloaks, or Palpatine's over-the-top displays of wickedness ("goooooood") are the kind of confident bursts of maximalism I can’t resist. On a massive theatrical canvas, smaller detailsdazzled my eyes, like the lava planet Mustafar’s sun always peeking behind some clouds. Having that sun occupying the background of Obi-Wan’s solo shots in his first Mustafar conversation with Anakin (“only a Sith deals in absolutes!”) is a fantastic touch too signifying which of these two men is aligned with the light.
Meanwhile, the bubble ballet spectacle playing out during Anakin and Palpatine’s conversation about Darth Plagueis is such a wonderfully alien sight. It’s something totally not of this Earth, a thoroughly imaginative manifestation of what folks in “a galaxy far, far away” would consider entertainment. Meanwhile, the MVP of this whole film is easily composer John Williams. In even the worst Star Wars movies like The Rise of Skywalker and Attack of the Clones, Williams crushed it. In Sith, he’s got lots of grand dramatic storytelling to work with and he excels right from the start with the incorporation of these towering drumbeats as the camera begins to focus on a staggering battle over Coruscant. From there, gloriously pronounced musical flourishes always slip into his composition, including these ominous chants accompanying General Grievous exiting his ship upon arriving in Utapau.
As if creating such magnificent new orchestral compositions wasn’t enough of a feat, the way Williams deploys familiar Star Wars tracks throughout Sith’s runtime is nothing short of masterful. “The Imperial March’s” creeping presence as Anakin grows more evil is especially a great touch that’s easier than ever to appreciate through movie theater speakers. Even the return of “Duel of the Fates” for the climactic Yoda/Palpatine duel is a fantastic touch. The John Williams score is as mesmerizing as Revenge of the Sith’s first-half is a slog.
Watching Andor’s season two premiere just before my Sith screening only exacerbated this film’s interminable, chitchat-heavy segments. In that show, board meetings between Empire higher-ups are compellingly realized through specific performances and appropriately eerie dehumanizing dialogue. Hobnobbing with wedding guests manifests through a striking extended single take constantly on the move. Meanwhile, Anakin and Padme converse in lifeless frames and trade seriously terrible verbiage. All those late 2000s/early 2010s memes about bad Prequel Trilogy writing can’t properly communicate how awful “no, it’s because I’m so in love with you” is.
Unimaginative staging for these earlier sequences set in Palpatine’s chambers and the Jedi Temple had me squirming in my seat. In another complaint that’s been brought up before, but boy, did I yearn for more ladies in this movie. Remember how cool and outspoken Leia was? The days of “aren’t you a little short to be a Stormtrooper?” and “Governor Tarkin…I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board” are long gone. Holdo's cool hair and Rey's engaging aura are more than a decade away from existing. In 2005 Star Wars cinema, Padme just sits around in her Coruscant chambers waiting to die. It’s also a shame to see so many cool-looking lady Jedis in the background of Revenge of the Sith (Aayla Secura, Stass Allie, Luminara Unduli) yet none of them get any personalities or even dialogue.
Padme’s lack of depth, not to mention the uninvolving human drama, speaks to why Revenge of the Sith, even with its grandiose qualities, is mid-range Star Wars. Looking back on all eleven theatrical Star Wars features, I'd handily put it behind all the Original Trilogy features and all but one (The Rise of Skywalker) of the Disney era Star Wars installments. My favorite entries in this saga (The Last Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back, 1977’s Star Wars) combine discernibly human characters with a gloriously over-the-top world that could only exist in sci-fi. The warm wisdom of Yoda (an ambiance we’ve all felt from important mentor figures in our life) emanating from a little green guy. Rose Tico’s frustration at economic and societal inequality (“I wish I could put my fist through this whole lousy, beautiful town”) communicated through her navigating a casino full of grotesque over-the-top aliens. An aloof bad boy like Han Solo communicating love the only way he can (“I know”) just before getting frozen in Carbonite.
It’s fun to see yourself in Luke Skywalker, Rey from Nowhere, Rose Tico, Cassian Andor, and others while also clapping in glee at the sight of kooky aliens like the Porgs or Max Rebo. Revenge of the Sith’s uninvolving camerawork and tedious characters just don’t live up to that legacy or the franchise’s possibilities. They’d also be underwhelming even if infinitely superior space operas like The Last Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back didn’t exist.
Ewan McGregor’s depiction of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s final breakdown to Anakin Skywalker (“You were my brother Anakin! I loved you!”) is astonishingly good and a stirring display of McGregor’s prowess as a performer. It also registers so hard partially because it’s a richly human and vulnerable moment in an otherwise cold movie. That aloofness from humanity combined with excessive CGI and generic camerawork certainly makes Revenge of the Sith feel akin to modern blockbusters like The Flash or Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Similarly, 2005 moviegoers were expected to cheer and clap upon witnessing Chewbacca like modern superhero movie fans going wild when a 20th Century Fox X-Men character appears in an MCU film. Again, time is a flat circle.
Even with Revenge of the Sith’s egregious, infamous flaws, it’s also got qualities that certainly put it above the weaker 2020s blockbusters it inspired. This includes a closing word-free montage depicting Padme’s funeral and the relocation of Luke and Leia Skywalker. Set to the opening minutes of “A New Hope and End Credits,” Sith worst aspects vanish. Moving visuals instead fill up the screen. After so much loss and misery, the camera focuses on potential glimmers of hope. This profoundly touching wrap-up gets so much power from ingenious Williams touches, like the precise timing of when “The Force Theme” begins creeping into the sequence as Owen and Beru Lars cradle Luke.
Watching this sequence, a lump formed in my throat and watery tears grew in my eyes. Much like the closing credits “bows” from Breaking Dawn – Part Two, Revenge of the Sith’s ending deployed terrifically-conceived music and irony-free sentimentality to get me verklempt about an otherwise mid-range tentpole. Such a touching conclusion is one of several high points in Revenge of the Sith, including delightfully fun touch like the way General Grievous skitters on the floor, Yoda nonchalantly dispatching two of Palpatine’s guards, or anything involving R2-D2. That little astromech droid, I forgot how much I loved R2-D2! Whenever he huddles away in fear, I just can’t help but go “awwwww”.
At its silliest or most bombastic, Revenge of the Sith really soars. Committing to depicting Anakin’s most despicable actions with such unrelenting darkness (like in that strikingly ominous shot of him entering the Jedi Temple with countless Clone Troopers) also reflects this title’s comfort with grandeur. This is a galactic blockbuster most at ease with exorbitant displays of emotion. Unfortunately, too much of Revenge of the Sith, especially its unending first half, is tin-eared dialogue and intimate conversations with shrug-worthy characters. “Heroes on both sides” exist in the Clone Wars, sure. However, Revenge of the Sith’s bombastic side is infinitely more heroic than its more tedious impulses.
* I was too much of a chicken as a kid to see Sith in its initial 2005 theatrical run as a nine-year-old BUT I did previously watch it in theaters as part of a six-movie marathon before a Thursday night Force Awakens screening on December 17, 2015. Because the darn thing started at 3 AM, I ended up taking a nap during portions of Sith, so this was my first time really experiencing it in full on the big screen.
Final sidenote: wow, Nute Gunray has way more dialogue in this than I remember.