Review
STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH
Starring Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen
Written and directed by George Lucas
Opens Thursday, May 19
Check listings
It’s better than The Phantom Menace, but not as good as Return of the Jedi. That’s really all you need to know about Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, because by this point you have probably made up your mind whether or not you are going to see the latest instalment in the Star Wars series.
If you still want to know more, then keep reading – it’s not like I can ruin the ending for you. Return of the Jedi came out in 1983, so fans have known for more than two decades that Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) becomes Darth Vader – by this point it’s just a matter of watching the inevitable play out. In case you managed to avoid the media onslaught that is the Star Wars marketing machine, Revenge of the Sith returns to a galaxy far far away and tells the story of political corruption, lost love and good versus evil in a sci-fi universe where the balance of nature is kept in check by an all-powerful life force and a noble band of warriors known as Jedi, who suspect that the head of the intergalactic senate is really the most evil man in the galaxy.
It’s a mouthful, isn’t it? And, for that, credit must be given to writer-director George Lucas for crafting an intricate and detailed allegory for modern political systems. But come on, isn’t this supposed to be a swashbuckling space opera for nine-year-old boys? My inner Jedi didn’t want political upheaval, it wanted spaceships and lightsabers and robots and weird creatures and a story that didn’t get really boring.
The film starts promisingly enough as the first 20 minutes of Revenge of the Sith are probably the most exciting part of the entire Star Wars franchise (and that includes the attack on the Death Star and the snow battle on Hoth). Anakin and his Jedi tutor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) set out on a daring rescue mission to help keep galactic peace, but once the characters start talking, the whole thing goes to hell. Lucas is an ambitious technical director and nowhere is that more apparent than this film, but when it comes to writing believable dialogue and engaging characters, he has always been lacking. As it stands, Christensen and Natalie Portman (as love interest and mom-to-be Padmé) don’t have the acting chops to wade through Lucas dialogue. The script is as clunky as a space cruiser with a broken hyperdrive unit, and only McGregor and Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu, a motherfuckin’ Jedi master) can do anything with it.
The film’s other problem is that it tries to tie up so many story elements that it becomes disjointed and jerky. Scenes fade in and out of each other whether they are finished or not and thanks to poor editing, characters plow to their final destination more intent on wrapping up the story than telling it.
After more than an hour of interpersonal conflict, galactic overthrow and a visit by a wookie or two, the moment that Star Wars fans have been waiting for finally hits the screen – it’s teacher versus master as Anakin and Obi-Wan have a light sabre duel for total Jedi supremacy. This, like the film’s opening doesn’t disappoint, and if Revenge of the Sith had ended after the battle, it might not have left such a sour taste in my mouth. Instead, Lucas found it necessary to tie up every single loose end just to set up a series of movies that have already been made.
In the end, the film’s biggest flaw is that it makes better back story than actual story. This was true of the previous two episodes, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. By filling in all the blanks, Lucas has taken interesting mythology and turned it into melodramatic fluff.
Still, despite all this (and the fact that the guy playing the emperor totally sucks), I’m still going to recommend this film for two reasons – the parts of the film that are good are worth seeing on the big screen, and it’s the only thing most of the men in North America are going to be talking about for the next three months. |
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