Star Wars Episode III on DVD: I Guess You’ll Have to Buy it

The DVD release of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of Sith promises to be a good DVD choice, even if the movie itself is no more than mediocre. True, Episode III is better than the other two of the more recent Star Wars installments, but it does not hold a candle to any of the movies in the original trilogy. But, for true fans that need to own all of Star Wars, Episode III is an indispensable part of the collection, and as a DVD goes, the features are interesting and make up for the disappointing movie.

The movie certainly needs no further reviews. Enough has been said about Natalie Portman’s less than stellar acting, and the fact that her lines were not good anyway, and so even if she were a fabulous actress they would still sound dumb. And we are all aware of the silliness of a nubby Anakin Skywalker hauling himself clear of a molten river of lava. What really shines in the two-disc set is the multiple features including an interesting featurette and a deleted scenes that satisfy the curiosity.

The featurette “Within a Minute” explains the complexity involved in the creation of one 49-second sequence in Episode III. Using more than 600 hours of material used to create the movie, the featurette showcases all of the work that goes into making a short sequence. Rick McCallum, one of the producers, hosts the featurette and makes the process of computer animation and staging interesting.

Deleted scenes are always fun to watch, and the scenes deleted from Episode III serve to tie up the loose ends and answer questions that we may have asked during the first trilogy. For instance, how in the world did Yoda get to such an out of the way place as Dagobah? Watch the deleted scene and you will find out. Yoda is one of the best characters in the Star Wars universe, and it is truly entertaining to see him making his first arrival on the swamp planet. Of course, not even the deleted scenes can make up for the inconsistency between the two trilogies.

Other features on the DVD include standard fare: behind the scenes footage and director commentary. The required music video, in this case “A Hero Falls,” is present, as is a presentation on the stunts performed in the movie. Some of the non-standard features include a featurette that traces the development of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, and an Xbox game demo of Star Wars Battlefront II (which, incidentally, is released concurrently with Episode III).

To complete the collection, Episode III is worth having. The bonus materials make the deal sweeter by adding hours of extras that are more interesting than actually watching the movie.