Revenge of the Sith DVD

Deleted Scenes

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed in the deleted scenes.

Most of them focus on the formation of the rebellion. I think I liked the one best where a delegation of senators and Padmé confronts Palpatine while Anakin is standing beside him, watching the scene. After they are gone Palpatine drops some subtle hints that Padmé hides something and that she cannot be trusted while Anakin defends her.

I was hoping for more substance to the jealousy plot because I read somewhere that Palpatine placed the idea of Padmé and Obi-Wan having an affair in Anakin's mind. That has always been a point I didn't like in the movie. Anakin's assumption that Padmé was betraying him with Obi-Wan and his harsh reaction to him on Mustafar seemed ridiculous and over the top to me. Well yes, the timing was bad and Anakin did turn to the dark side in the meantime... But the last time he had seen Obi-Wan he was gushing about how thankful he was for his teachings.
The scene in Palpatine's office would have been the right time for Palpatine's manipulation but it turned out much more subtle.



All in all Padmé's character suffers the most that these scenes were cut because they show that she is more than a devoted housewife and still has some political consciousness left.



The little Yoda landing on Dagobah scene was very nice and melancholy. It seems he landed on the exact same spot where Luke's ship did.

In one of the other scenes we see an alternative version of Anakin and Obi-Wan's first encounter with Grievous where they have to witness the murder of Shaak Ti. The scene is not finished in places and I definitely like the version we saw in the movie better. Although there is nice banter between Anakin and Obi-Wan the scene somehow seems a bit weird to me. But if you want to see wet jedi and their amazing nonverbal communication skills you should definitely check this scene out.




Documentaries

The center piece of the bonus disc is the documentary Within a Minute. For people who are interested in films and the process of making them this might be interesting because it shows how many people were involved and how much effort they put in less than a minute of the Mustafar battle scene. Although I am one of those movie geeks being interested in film-making the documentary drags a bit in places and is much too long.



I prefer the web documentaries that have a similar function. Each of them focuses on a different detail in the film-making process but you can watch them individually. My favorite is No. 10 (Becoming Obi-Wan) but there's a funny outtake in No. 6: It shows Hayden who carries Ewan across his shoulders fumbling with a button to open the door mechanism until someone shouts "Wrong door!" He then walks grinning to the next door and both of them have to crack up laughing. It's really short but very amusing.





In the Chosen One featurette George and Hayden share their oh so deep insight on Anakin's character and downfall (nothing really new). Oh George, I really love Star Wars but dialog and directing actors are not your strong points! After witnessing George's directing instructions I really pity the actors. You can practically see the question marks on Hayden's face after George told him how to play the scene. But we get a few nice and entertaining glimpses behind the scenes.




There's another short documentary that focuses on the stunt work. We get to know the stunt doubles and see some (old) footage from Ewan and Hayden's fight training.





I have yet to watch the remaining features but one thing I am really disappointed about is that there are no bloopers. The only easter egg is a break dancing Yoda. I was so looking forward to them after having seen the AotC gag reel. Perhaps Lucas is saving them for a prequel box. He better does.

At least there are some funny production stills. For example some silly jedi:



...or Ewan flirting with Grievous



Half crispy Hayden (even I have to admit he looks really creepy here):



And last but not least a cute picture of both of them.




And if you want to get in the right mood for rewatching the movie I strongly rec shoiryu's I am young, but I have aged. It's a very nice and poetic take on Anakin's live and it put some things in perspective for me.