The Nitpicker's Guide for Star Wars Episode III

[Captain Hawke]

As if you need any more reasons to see ROTS.... ;D

Please note: There are a few minor issues, such as Obi-Wan saying he hasn't used that name "since before you were born", among others, which can easily be attributed to character mistakes, ie. mis-remembering things, rather than "real" movie mistakes.

When Yoda knocks Darth Sidious backwards over his chair, you can see the stuntman's hand. Sidious's hands are old and his nails are dark around the cuticles, but the hand during the flip is perfectly healthy and a different size.


In the speech hall when Yoda fights Darth Sidious, when Yoda falls down grabbing onto a panel, he holds on while sliding down, leaving scrape marks with his nails. When it cuts you can see the scrape marks have changed.

Continuity: After Anakin has told Windu that Palpatine is the Sith Lord, Windu gets on his ship which takes off. We see the ship's shadow moving on the ground right next to Anakin. When it cuts the shadow from the ship is gone. When it cuts again to a wider shot we see the ship's shadow suddenly appear again.

Continuity: When Obi-wan kills Grievous and Grievous falls to the ground we see, in the wide shot, Obi-wan lowering his weapon. When it cuts to a close-up he lowers his gun again.


Continuity: At the end of the sequence where Padme tells Anakin she's pregnant, he says something like "I'm very happy" and places his left hand close to her cheek. Angle moves to the back of Padme and the hand has suddenly moved to the nape of the neck.

Continuity: When Obi-wan gets on the intercom with R2 the first time on Grievous' ship, as it cuts to R2 backing up against the corner hiding from the droids we can see that there is no light casting his shadow. When it cuts to R2 again two shots later, bright light suddenly appears, casting his shadow.

Revealing: When Grievous and Obi-wan are fighting, as Grievous hits Obi-wan making him fly through the air hitting his vessel, it is quite obvious it is a stunt double instead of Ewan McGregor.

Continuity: When Obi-wan arrives at Tatooine and about to give the baby (Luke) away we see that he has the baby under his cloak. In a wide shot as he is walking he removes his cloak from the baby. When it cuts to a close shot he removes it again.

Continuity: When Obi-wan and Yoda arrive at the Jedi temple to find all the slain Jedi, there is a wide shot showing Obi-wan walking several feet ahead of Yoda. Obi-wan then takes up his hands and are about to remove his hood when it cuts and now Yoda is suddenly right next to Obi-wan.

Continuity: When Palpatine and Anakin, who's carrying Obi-wan, climb through the elevator shaft we see Palpatine put his left hand down pushing himself up. When it cuts he does the same again.

Continuity: When Yoda is done with the holographic meeting with the rest of the Jedi Council about sending Obi-wan after Grievous, he gets up and walks to the trooper behind him. We also see Chewbacca follow him, stop and cross his arms. When it cuts to the trooper saying "The droids have started up their main power generators" we see Chewbacca still walking and stopping, but this time he doesn't cross his arms, he places them on his hips.

Continuity: On Utapau, when Obi-wan faces off with Grievous, Grievous sends 4 magma droids at Obi-wan. Obi-wan force-pulls something from the ceiling to crush the droids. But in the ensuing fight between Obi-wan and Grievous afterwards, the ceiling thing and crushed droids are gone.


Continuity: In the observatory on Grievous' ship, when Anakin and Obi-Wan ready themselves to fight Dooku, they drop their cloaks on the floor in front of Palpatine, and the cloaks' positions change in the following shots.

Continuity: In Star Wars Episode II, in the fight between Anakin/Obi-Wan and Count Dooku, Anakin's arm is cut off well above the elbow. The first time we see the arm in Star Wars III, in the apartment of Anakin and Padme, the mechanical arm ends just under the elbow, meaning his elbow must have somehow grown back...

Continuity: In the scene where Anakin returns to Padme's apartment after the fight at the Jedi temple, watch R2-D2 in his compartment in Anakin's ship as the camera angle changes. In some shots, R2's "legs" are flush with the hull of the ship, and in others, they are well above it.

Other: During the scene of Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader, there is a close up shot of his face just before his helmet is put in place. All of his face is shown as being badly burned with the exception of his eyelashes, which are still impossibly there. Subjecting one's face to any heat source hot enough to sear one's face will also burn away one's eyelashes as well.
***Brie's daughter pointed this one out!!!!***

Continuity: After having his nightmare/premonition Anakin wakes up, while Padmé sleeps beside him. The blankets on Padmé and the bed change position in the following shots.

Audio problem: When Anakin is leading the troopers into the Jedi Temple, the sound of footsteps doesn't match the actual march from the clone soldiers.
***I noticed this one but didn't want to say anything***

Continuity: When Yoda and Anakin discuss Anakin's premonition the shadows change, particularly on Yoda's seat where the slat's many bright shadows become fewer and dimmer between shots.


Continuity: In the 3 Tantive IV (Senator Organa's ship) hallway scenes, small details in each scene show that they are all the same hallway (red symbol above door, arrangement of metal plates on both sides of door, location of black squares on side walls, location of side doors). The same exact small details can all be found in the hallways Darth Vader makes an entrance into in A New Hope, meaning this is supposed to be the same hallway (that's also been confirmed by official sources - they went to great length to recreate the ship exactly, based on photos of the original set). However, the hallway in ROTS is much narrower.

[Brie]

Now I'm going to have to go see it again. The sacrifices I make...

Thanks, Hawke!

[Captain Hawke]

Oh but wait!!! There's more!!!!

Continuity: When Obi-Wan meets Anakin on the landing bay of the volcanic planet, Obi-Wan comes down the ramp from the ship and removes his cloak. It lays across the end of the ramp. The shot changes, then comes back, and the cloak is now bunched off to one side.

Continuity: During the Anakin/Obi-Wan fight scene Obi Wan switches lightsabers with Anakin. When Anakin is strangling him we can definitely see that Obi-Wan is holding Anakin's lightsaber in his right hand (note the hilt design), but when the shot is reversed Obi-Wan is holding his own lightsaber in that hand.


Continuity: When Anakin has just had the bad dream, Padme comes out wearing the nightdress with rows of beads around her arms. In one shot, the beads on her right arm are twisted, in the next, they're straight again.


Continuity: When Mace Windu and Palpatine are in his office after the lightsaber battle, Palpatine scrabbles into the corner as Windu paces towards him, ending up directly over him with lightsaber pointed at his throat. As Anakin walks in, Palpatine is already backed into the corner and Windu needs a few paces to get to him.


Continuity: While Anakin and Palpatine are talking at the performance, in one shot of Anakin we see Palpatine turn his head side on to the camera and drop his chin to his chest. In the very next shot he's holding his head high.


Continuity: In the Mace Windu/Palpatine fight scene, the glass window is shattered after being hit by a lightsaber. However, while Palpatine is talking to Anakin after the fight, you can still see Anakin's reflection in the space where the glass was.


Continuity: Just before the lightsaber battle between Mace Windu and Darth Sidious, we see the lightsaber of Sidious ejected from his sleeve and he grabs it with his finger down the length of it. We then instantly cut to a wide shot and he's suddenly gripping it with all his fingers curled in.


Continuity: In the scene where Anakin arrives on Mustafar and tells R2-D2 to stay with the ship, as he pulls the hood of his robe over his head, his mechanical hand is on his left hand and not on his right as it should be.

Continuity: When Anakin is in the medical centre lying on his back being transformed into Darth Vader, you can see the main part of the mask being lowered into place but Anakin is not wearing the neck section of the mask that it connects to. We then see the main part lowering directly downwards, in the next shot the neck section is in place.


Continuity: Near the start, as Anakin and the politicians start walking away, Jar-Jar says "excuse me" to a large blue creature next to him. In the next, wider shot, there's now another creature between them.

Mistake Audio problem: When Samuel L. Jackson says "I don't think the boy can handle it, I don't trust him" his lips don't match his dialogue when he says "I don't trust him".


Mistake Continuity: During Obi-Wan's departure scene on Coruscant, when he is telling Anakin how proud he is of him, Obi-Wan's eye color shifts from Ewan McGregor's' natural blue-green eyes to a dark brown.

Mistake Continuity: After the crash landing on Coruscant, Anakin, Kenobi, and Palpatine take a shuttle to the Jedi Council. In the first shot as the shuttle is landing, all shadows are parallel with the edge of the landing area. In the next shot when the shuttle doors open, all shadows have shifted 45-degrees clockwise.

[Brie]

A couple of things I've noticed:

In the Jedi Temple Mace Windu's sitting position changes an awful lot between some shots. Maybe he's just fast, he is an action movie star, after all.

Also, where does Palpatine's hood come from? He's not wearing a cloak with a hood when he's attacked by Mace Windu, there doesn't seem to be another cloak around, but after Anakin pledges himself suddenly Palpatine is putting on the hood, I assume for the few people who didn't realize that he was Darth Sidious. (Believe it or not, I've run across a couple of people who had no idea that Palpatine and Sidious are the same.)