Regie:
George LucasDrehbuch:
George LucasKamera:
David TattersallMusik:
John WilliamsBesetzung:
Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Frank Oz, Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee (mehr)Streaming (5)
Inhalte(1)
Die Galaktische Republik droht zu zerfallen. Kanzler Palpatine schwingt sich zum diktatorischen Alleinherrscher und Imperator auf. Die Angehörigen des stets auf das Gute verpflichteten Ordens der Jedi-Ritter werden aus den Kreisen der Macht verdrängt. Die Liebe des jungen Jedi Anakin Skywalker und der bezaubernden Senatorin Padmé Amidala wird während der interstellaren Klonkriege auf eine harte Probe gestellt. Die Sith sinnen auf Rache und locken mit der Macht der Dunklen Seite. (ORF)
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Dramaturgically, it’s much more mature and immersive than the two previous episodes. It’s incredibly spectacular and dynamic in its individual attractions, which exquisitely heightens the atmosphere and, for the first time in the new trilogy, revels in fatality and visual darkness. While Lucas is absolutely incapable of any psychological level, and SW in his hands remains a cold showcase of intergalactic filmmaking possibilities and worlds, this instalment at least has the narrative balls and verve to make me gladly forgive him for the mechanical dialogue or the dull character shift by the awful Christensen. It's got major conflict, pivotal moments of the entire saga, and an ultra-cool Yoda and Obi-Wan whose separate story-arcs, capped by two parallel and iconic duels, I would sketch in the starry sky at night and always watch before falling asleep. The transition to A New Hope is finally completed, George Lucas, you have my respect...
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Peter Jackson hat gesagt, dass die ersten beiden Teile von Der Herr der Ringe deshalb entstanden sind, damit es den dritten Teil geben kann. Bei Star Wars passt diese Aussage aber noch mehr. Es ist überraschend, wie sich das Gesicht von Episode III allmählich verändert – sie fängt wie die unterhaltsamen Popcorn-Filme Episode I und Episode II an. Dann nimmt sie den Stil der Originaltrilogie an und endet so, dass man sich die Episode IV anschauen möchte. Dieser Übergang beweist, warum die beiden vorigen Episoden dramatisch so schwach waren, und bestätigt, WER der "Hauptheld" der ganze Saga ist und WAS das wichtigste Element eines großen Fantasyfilms ist. Bei Jackson war es Sauron, bei Lucas ist es Darth Vader. Filmtechnisch gesehen ist die Episode III nur in den letzten 20 Minuten besser als die vorigen Teile (welche das dramatische Niveau von Episode V erreichen). Der Rest des Films ist fesselnder. Nicht deshalb, weil er besser geschrieben oder gedreht wäre, sondern deshalb, weil er einen Inhalt hat. Was wäre Der Herr der Ringe - Die Gefährten, wenn in ihm als das größte und mächtigste Böse nicht Sauron dargestellt wäre? Episode I und Episode II hätte man in einem zweistündigen Prequel zusammenfassen sollen und der Anfang der Saga, die wir alle lieben, hätte erst Episode III sein sollen. May the Dark Side be with you, Anakin!
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Episode III ist eine verzweifelte Fuge, in der der wandernde Torso des Jedi-Ordens versucht, alles zu tun, um in völliger Desillusion und Agonie zu enden. Während Lucas den Zuschauern mit einem Bissen seiner spektakulären Stunt-Action verwöhnt, steigert er die böse Vorahnung und verstärkt die düsteren Untertöne fast von Beginn des Films an, was akustisch und visuell in der Szene gipfelt, in der Anakin im verlassenen Jedi-Tempel eine fatale Entscheidung trifft - seinem Verführer Palpatine zu helfen. Obwohl George Lucas ein mittelmäßiger Regisseur ist, gehören diese Szene und einige andere (insbesondere die Vernichtung der Jedi) zu den emotional stärksten der gesamten sechsteiligen Serie. In Episode III gelingt es ihm, den Rhythmus und das Tempo beizubehalten, das er gegen Ende mutig zu einem wilden Stakkato hoffnungsloser Szenen steigert, die den imaginären Höhepunkt der neuen Trilogie bilden. Sie haben einen ungewöhnlichen Naturalismus und passen ganz zu der neuen Atmosphäre, die Star Wars durch die neuen Episoden, aber vor allem durch die Computerspielreihe erhalten hat. Der Eindruck ist ungeheuerlich, eindringlich, unmittelbar. Viel mehr gibt es nicht zu sagen - Die Rache der Sith ist der Beweis dafür, dass sich alle Schluckaufs der beiden Vorgängerfilme gelohnt haben, denn sie bilden die Grundlage für ein wirklich spektakuläres Finale. Kritikpunkte: Die Actionszenen sind zu langatmig und leiden unter der klassischen visuellen Völlerei des digitalen Zeitalters, für das Lucas der führende Geist ist. Zu viele Farben und Effekte führen zu Unübersichtlichkeit. Die Musik von John Williams ist etwas starr, aber in den entscheidenden Momenten funktioniert sie. Ja, und dann noch ein paar Reminiszenzen an den unglaublich gestelzten Liebesdialog. Aber sehr wenige. Nicht genug, um eine Episode zu ruinieren, die sich in Gesellschaft von Eine neue Hoffnung und Das Imperium schlägt zurück wirklich nicht zu schämen braucht.
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Lucas didn’t deliver what I was looking forward to the most. There was no major internal struggle in Anakin's mind, his transition to the dark side was too rushed, despite Lucas having the whole movie to work on it. It called for more Anakin and his mental struggle and less flashy Grievous (though the four lightsabers were cool). Some moments were weaker or outright lame (Obi-Wan chasing chasing Grievous on a lizard, the deformed face of Palpatine's with a make-up that failed fatally when compared to the Emperor's expression in the old series), some were exquisite (the whole Obi-Wan vs. Anakin duel, Obi-Wan's beautifully played emotional speech to the burning Anakin, the extermination of the Jedi), and the overall emotional impact was quite strong. But I still stand by the fact that Lucas is not a very good director and should have given the helm to someone more skilled. This episode is not without flaws, so with its cautious five stars, The Empire Strikes Back remains on top. But I still love this legend as a whole.
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Lucas recovered and The Revenge of the Sith justified the existence of the entire trilogy. My overall impression is positive, but there are a couple of mistakes (Christensen is not a good actor) that prevent the highest score.
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The third episode, which is also the sixth one to be shot, makes its epic qualities really more than obvious. I feel that George Lucas told everyone that the first trilogy couldn’t be done in the 1970s, but he also did it on purpose so that the epicness of it could be built on the existing fame. Which actually, in the end, happened. I remember, that when I, back then, started with the newer trilogy, I was very uncertain after the second episode what would come in the third one. And the third one also started pretty slow. But the second half of the movie is, thankfully, a never-ending wipe-out that not only brings you the transformation of Anakin into Darth Vader, but there is also a solid amount of scenes some fans have been waiting for for 2 decades and which aren’t going to be forgotten easily. And that’s despite the fact that everybody even then knew very well what was going to happen and they still couldn’t help but feel the suspense that the third episode hides. For me a complete climax during which you need to wait out the first half-hour of political babbling so that you can enjoy the acting reincarnation of Hayden Christensen into one of the most powerful Sith Lord of that time.
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The dark side of the Force suits it. Even so, I don’t think even retrospectively that it makes any more sense than the previous ones; quite the opposite, in the light (excuse me, “the darkness") of this episode I find that the absolute superfluousness of the saga becomes even more obvious. The imbalance in pace is a huge mistake. The first fifteen minutes involves a monumental battle, then we get a boring hour with starched amateur dramatic dialogs and then during the last hour it turns into a serious drama with convincing (as far as the Star Wars universe is concerned) characters. Too bad that the transformation of Anakin into Vader seems unbelievable and rushed. The idea that this mentally unstable character was in fact the embodiment of living charisma that we know from the original trilogy is ridiculous. The weaker moments are saved by the stylish over-acting of Ian McDiarmid. The greatest faux pas is that, although this was supposed to be emotionally tense due to the tragic context, sadly the opposite is true. While on screen we see something technically impressive, it leaves you absolutely cold.
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The most expensive camp movie of all time. In contrast to the straightforwardly tasteless Spaceballs, the conclusion of the prequel trilogy offers the properly attuned audience a multi-layered farce with a magnificently overwrought script that abounds with cartoonish characters, absurd sequences and absolutely zero logic. The film’s greatest enigma is Hayden Christensen; even more so than in the second episode, it is impossible to tell if he is a terrible actor or, conversely, very good at playing a horrible asshole (Ian McDiarmid, on the other hand, portrays the nascent emperor with positively swaggering self-indulgence). Episode III similarly also culminates the other drawbacks of the previous instalment. Apart from the ridiculous emo gloominess, the film’s main fault lies in the fact that the narrative doesn’t develop its own story, but serves merely to establish the motifs of the original trilogy. Generally speaking, the audience’s familiarity with the denouement doesn't automatically mean that a film can’t be engaging – one of the best examples of which is Singer’s Valkyrie. This can be achieved by building tension, developing supporting sub-motifs or parallel storylines, or by simply building a fictional world. But Lucas does not do any of these things, relying instead on superficial fanservice and bluntly and literally filling in the gaps in a story that previously at least offered the promise of ambiguity (though the film also introduces a number of gaps in logic into the saga). And what is the moral and denouement of Episode III and with it the completed saga? The Force reaches equilibrium through several decades of the destructive, capricious behaviour of a childishly unhinged egocentric asshole who first subverts the religiously degenerate Jedi and then literally topples the brilliant manipulator and master of chance, the emperor. On the one hand, we can understand this as a stimulating impetus in relation to prophecy, the interpretation of history and the importance of the individual in history, but it’s not exactly exciting for viewers. So, it's actually nice of Lucas to wrap up this denouement in such a wildly bad movie that invites amused commentary at every moment.
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One film legend says that there was a fundamental difference in the approach to the world of cinema among the three most influential filmmakers of the 70s, namely Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas. While Spielberg and Coppola literally lived for movies, exhaustively watched the performances of acclaimed film classics in film clubs, passionately discussed cinema with similarly affected individuals late into the night, and tried to push the world of film forward, Lucas was an enthusiastic reader of outdated comics, a viewer of 1950s TV space operas, and film theory was inherently foreign to him. However, he was able to capture the essence of popular culture and the transformation of the film audience from the 40s to the 70s, when the average age of cinema-goers continued to decrease. At the same time, due to sociological processes and the enrichment of society, there was a change in the perception of film. The infantilization fully manifested itself and the concept of a family film with a lower standard prevailed to be understood by a wider range of potential viewers. This is how Star Wars came into being, where a fairytale was wrapped in cosmic technology and the nonsense of the then-popular New Age movement. Lucas filmed it as visually and naively as possible, and precisely because of that, it had such a penetrating success. What succeeds attracts attention and the desire to imitate, and at a certain stage, when it becomes a cult, it is practically unquestionable and by itself carries the seal of quality regardless of its content. I saw the first three films of the famous series at an age when I found the motifs and execution, especially the "intellectual superstructure," laughable. Otherwise, the course of events is such that you see it for the first time at the age of 8-9, and then with an iron regularity, so you grow up with it and it has emotional and nostalgic value for you. Even if I grew up with it, I still would have most likely become a fan of the Star Trek series, which, despite its clichés, naivety, and the ideological basis that stems from multiculturalism, represents an honest work from the sci-fi genre. Star Wars only shares the space settings with the sci-fi genre. It is a fairytale fantasy that is neither clever nor innovative nor brilliantly directed. The later three episodes of the series are loaded with bombastic special effects, but they are more childish than anything, and they also lack the confident ironic detachment that emanates from every smirk of Han Solo. His portrayal by Harrison Ford somewhat resembles the much more pronounced ironic detachment of the Indiana Jones character. Personally, the entire series has nothing to offer me, and although there are understandably significant nuances between each film, what bothers me, such as the frenzied waving of lightsabers, the babbling about the Force, and the cute plush creatures as extraterrestrials, are typical of all the episodes. Therefore, this commentary applies to all parts of the Star Wars series. Overall impression: 20% for the set design.
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(weniger)
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A fantastic conclusion to the greatest film saga of all time. Visually extremely confident, plot-packed, and emotionally fateful.
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When it came to the pivotal installment meant to tie everything together, he finally managed to connect with the original trilogy in terms of the fourth and fifth episodes. This is a hauntingly dark ending to the new trilogy, so dark it will sometimes give you chills. The special effects are magnificent right from the start. The duel with Grievous is among my favorites, as well as the clash between Yoda and Sidious (Yoda doesn't finish this fight either) and Obi-Wan with Vader.
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Episode III ingeniously develops the conflict with the dark side of the Force and presents Anakin's entire transformation in a supremely realistic and believable way. Definitely the best installment of the new trilogy, and thankfully very close to the qualities of the original Star Wars.
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