When it comes to Star Wars, the prequels get a ton of hate. Fans are constantly complaining about how Jar Jar Binks is annoying, the romance scenes come off as forced, and the excessive amount of CGI makes certain things look fake. Despite the hate, one star wars movie which is heavily underrated is the third movie in the prequel universe. Revenge of The Sith is not only underrated but in many ways, actually a great movie. Here is why Revenge of The Sith is a good movie and doesn’t deserve the hate that it gets.
First off, the fight scenes from the prequels are fast and visually impressive in contrast to the fights in the originals that tend to be slower and more realistic. The fight between Obi Wan Kenobi and General Grievous features the robotic cyborg using 4 lightsabers at the same time to take on the defensive guru Obi Wan which ultimately results in General Grevious dying near the end of the Clone Wars era. The end of the movie also features Anakin and Obi-Wan battling it out on a lava-based planet and features many memorables lines such as you underestimate my power, i hate you, and you were the chosen one. We also finally get to see Palpatine reveal himself as Darth Sidious and unleash vicious lightsaber fights and memorable Ian Mcdermid lines on an array of opponents including Mace Windu and Yoda. All in all, Revenge of The Sith features some of the best duels in the entire Star Wars movie series.
The final duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan-Kenobi is filled with many emotions and vicious lightsaber swings. Anakin became twisted by the dark side, fueled by his anger and distrust of the jedi council in addition to wanting to save his wife Padme. Obi-Wan is forced to fight the padawan who he trained and eventually grew to love like a brother. As they are fighting, Obi-Wan tries to convince Anakin that Palpatine is only using him but this doesn’t work. In the end, Anakin is defeated and his bodily heavily mutilated.
Another reason why Revenge of The Sith is good is because of the darkness of the film itself. In most movies, the good guys overcome great odds to beat the bad guys by the end of the movie and everybody lives happily ever after. With the third prequel movie, by the end of the film, the opposite is true. All of the jedi are wiped out, the republic is destroyed and the galactic empire is put in its place. The execution of order 66 initiated by supreme chancellor Palpatine effectively wipes out the entire jedi order as hundreds of jedi are slayed by their own personal army. Meanwhile, the newly reborn Darth Vader leads an army of clone troopers into the jedi temple and wipes out those stationed there including dozens of jedi younglings. Those that survive the jedi massacre are forced to go into hiding to avoid persecution by the empire. Most of them are eventually killed throughout many decades by Lord Vader himself.
Secondly, you could argue that the story itself was good but some parts of the story were executed poorly such as the romantic scenes. George Lucas has a weakness for script writing and it shows in the oftentimes awkward scenes between Anakin and Padme. However, the story the prequels were trying to tell had a lot of potential. The plot of the entire prequel franchise is the story of Anakin Skywalker, the chosen one with unusual force abilities who is prophesied to bring balance to the force but is ultimately seduced by the dark side of the force. This results in the end of the jedi order and the birth of the galactic empire.
All in all, Revenge of The Sith isn’t a terrible movie. It is filled with action packed lightsaber duels, epicly composed music by the legendary John Williams, and a story with a great amount of potential. It doesn’t deserve the hate that it gets and I hope that more people come to appreciate not only Revenge of The Sith but the prequel trilogy as a whole.