The third entry into the Star Wars prequel trilogy might well be its best effort. The progression of storylines and more character development, combined with a distinct improvement in effects and animation make for an exciting film that does justice for the original trilogy.
Having said that, there are still a few questionable moments, which are often littered with continuity errors. As a caveat, we’ve also included a few plot holes and inconsistencies as well.
Nute Gunray Is Completely Different
We’re introduced to the relatively racist character of Nute Gunray all the way back in The Phantom Menace. He was Viceroy of the Trade Federation and liable to a fair bit of deception and evil, ranking highly amongst the Separatists. He ended up meeting his demise after the breakdown of the Separatists at the hand of Darth Vader, but not after going through a few changes.
In Episodes I and II, he is a slug-faced being with a cool hat that came down to his shoulders like hair. By Episode III, his costume had changed drastically, along with a fair few changes to his alien face that make him almost look like a different character.
The Green Screen And Animation Is Very Unconvincing
As with both of the other prequels, this installment to the franchise leans heavily on green screen animation. It does it far better than both previous films, but it’s not exactly convincing. In fact, there are still too many animation and green screen errors that make scenes change as they progress to list them all. Some of the worst offenders include the pillar behind Padmé and Anakin when she tells him she’s pregnant that changes throughout the scene, the lack of shadows from the artificial light sources, and the disappearance of various objects throughout scenes.
Dooku’s Lightsaber Hand
During the brilliant battle between Obi-Wan, Anakin and Count Dooku, we get to see the power of each Jedi (and Sith). Obi-Wan isn’t really done justice in his portrayal, but it’s clear that Dooku has an impressive mastery of the force.
As Dooku holds his lightsaber in his right hand, we should see him using the force with his left. However, later on in the fight when he sends the pillar crashing down on Obi-Wan, he does it with his right hand. Interestingly, his lightsaber is still in his right hand in both shots directly before and after this one.
They Shouldn’t Know Palpatine Is The Emperor Yet
As Emperor Palpatine is carrying out the evens of Order 66 which destroy his foes and leave him as the ultimate leader of the galaxy, Yoda and Obi-Wan are reviewing recordings. They talk about the man they know as Chancellor (and possible Darth Sidious) but refer to him as the Emperor, which a title he bestowed upon himself. Firstly, how do they know that this is the title he has chosen? And furthermore, they don’t even know that he has declared himself in power of what he now refers to as his Empire yet, as its happening at the same time elsewhere in the galaxy.
Lava Flow
The most well-known issue in the Star Wars prequels is that Anakin and Obi-Wan should have both caught fire moments into their fight on Mustafar. They don’t, and we just have to deal with that.
Another issue in this lava battle comes right at the end when, after the entire fight has shown the lava flowing to Obi-Wan’s left, it is suddenly going in the exact opposite direction. Whether this is down to an animation error or a mirrored shot is unclear, but it certainly doesn’t match what we had been shown beforehand.
How Does Burning Anakin Move?
In that gruesome scene towards the end of the film in which we see Anakin (who is now fully Darth Vader) catching fire next to the lava river, he is right next to it to the point where his feet are almost floating in the molten rock. When the scene changes, he seems to have hoisted himself quite far away from it in an instantaneous moment, despite his arms, legs and much of his upper body literally being in flames. We know he’s a powerful Jedi, but surely he isn’t capable of this instant teleportation tactic.
Obi Wan’s “High Ground” Makes No Sense
When Obi-Wan claims to have the high ground, he undermines the entire point of Star Wars. He should know that having the high ground certainly doesn’t mean you’ve won the battle. When righting Darth Maul, Obi-Wan was literally falling into a reactor core and holding on for dear life before hoisting himself back up to win.
Maybe if he’d remembered this, the writers would have paid attention to their previous film and he’d have simply put Anakin out of his misery when he could, rather than leave him to be rescued and ultimately killed by him a few years later.
Padmé Dies As Leia Is Being Born, So How Can Leia Remember Her?
The most controversial moment in Revenge Of The Sith is when Padmé suddenly dies of a broken heart during childbirth. It doesn’t really make sense that George Lucas decided to add this in, because, in Return Of The Jedi, Leia clearly claims to remember what her ‘real mother’ was like. Unless Leia has an exceptionally impressive memory that allowed her to look back on the first couple of seconds of her life, then there is no way that she’d remember a thing about Padmé, who died mere seconds into Leia’s life.
Ki Adi Mundi Can Speak Without Moving His Mouth
One of the more heartbreaking moments of this episode is when Order 66 leads to the death of everyone’s favorite two-brained Jedi Master, Ki-Adi Mundi. He turns to his clones to shout “Come on!” but his mouth doesn’t move. This would suggest that they layered this line over the top of the shot in post-production.
A few moments later, the order is given and the delightful Jedi meets his demise. We never got to find out about the droid attack on the Wookies.
They Don’t Do A Good Job Of Protecting Luke And Leia
This one isn’t so much an error in continuity, but more a glaring error in terms of making the storyline make sense. The whole point of separating Luke and Leia is to protect them, which they can’t really do if they’re thrust into the heart of the battle. Despite this, they put Anakin back on the home planet of his father in the care of his only known relatives and refer to him exclusively by his real name. They also dump Leia in the home of a particularly anti-Empire family, endangering her even further. It makes very little sense, but it had to be done in order to match the start of the original trilogy.
