Revenge Of The Sith

I only read movie novelisations when I don't understand the movie or feel that there were scenes the movie left out. Strangely enough, I felt that way when watching the final installment of Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith.

This novelisation was based on the screenplay written by George Lucas. Usually I don't take much notice as the author probably got to preview the movie before writing it. But this isn't the case for this novel. In fact, this novel complements the movie in so many ways. Scenes that were in the movie, that were not explained, are explained in this novel. You even get more dialogue between Mace Windu arguing with Yoda about the darkness in the Senate and how to get Chancellor Palpatine to give up his emergency powers. Count Dooku's charade with Chancellor Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious) before Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker show up in the observation deck of the Invisible Hand to rescue him, and much, much more.

There's also slightly more dialogue and action between Anakin and Padme, but it wasn't really necessary. George Lucas doesn't really write love scenes and dialogue really well. Certain scenes have been left out and instead of play-writing the whole scene out, Matthew Stover managed to describe it without giving up too much detail, and yet made us understand what took place.

I've read the other book Matthew Stover wrote, Traitor, written during the New Jedi Order time period and the invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong. It was a novel about Jacen Solo's capture and torture and his spiritual journey through the force with his teacher Vergere. It was a most insightful and meaningful episode in the NJO series that made you understand the Force better. There is no light and dark side of the Force, there's only the Force that used, what we call light side, and the raw, untamed energies of the Force, what we call the dark side. This led up to the finale episode written in the novel The Unifying Force.

If you're watched the movie and rewatched it on DVD and still found ROTS missing something, pick up this novel and enjoy it, you won't regret it.

8 out of 10