Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith

Reviewed by Rich Drees

     It’s ironic that the one thing that has truly divided the opinions of fans of the Star Wars film franchise is the films themselves.

     When series creator writer/director George Lucas returned to the franchise after a 15-year hiatus with The Phantom Menace (1999), many fans embraced it whole-heartedly while others greeted it with a far more critical eye. Had the decade and a half wait for a new big screen installment of Lucas’s sprawling epic of intergalactic adventure built up expectations that could not be reasonably met? Had Lucas’s creative muscles atrophied since the last Star Wars film, 1983’s Return Of The Jedi? Did fans anxious to see a new glimpse of his Lucas’s worlds throw away all critical sense and blindly embrace the new film? The answer probably lies somewhere in between.

     The release of 2002’s Attack Of The Clones, although critically better received than Phantom Menace, did nothing to heal the divide between the camps. Debates continued to be waged on internet chatboards. Fans with criticisms, oft times older movie goers who saw the original Star Wars trilogy during its initial theatrical releases, were decried as “Haters” while at the same time branding their opponents as “Lucas apologists” (In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve found that while Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones do have some entertaining moments, any good is outweighed by rather long stretches of exposition filled dialogue about trade routes, taxation and other ill-defined politics, wooden acting that is upstaged by overactive digital backgrounds and a rather stiffly-written romance between young Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Galactic Senator Padme Amadala (Natalie Portman).).

    But now the moment that even casual fans of the Star Wars movies have been waiting for has arrived: the final film detailing Anakin Skywalker’s seduction to evil and transformation into the villainous Darth Vader while the galaxy slides from democratic republic to despotic empire. And the question looms- Will this movie, even more anticipated than the previous two, be able to meet fans' expectations and perhaps in the process put the acrimony between the squabbling fan factions to rest?

     While there will be some fans who will still rail against this last installment for the simple sake of railing, while others will still turn a blind eye to what faults it does have, there is much in Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith for fans on both sides of the critical debate to enjoy.

     The film starts off strong with a rollicking spaceship battle above the galaxy’s capital planet with Anakin and his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) making their way through the melee to rescue Chancellor of the Galactic Senate Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who had been kidnapped by rebel separatists. It’s an exciting sequence that captures the magic that made the first Star Wars movie seem so fresh when it was released in 1977-- edge-of-your-seat visual excitement and seemingly effortless heroics.

     Unfortunately, the film bogs down a bit once the battle and rescue are over, resurrecting some of the previous films’ problems. While the talk of galactic politics isn’t as ponderous as before, the romantic dialogue between Anakin and Padme is still rather stilted, forcing the actors to work hard to bring what life there is to the scene. Christensen and Portman do better this time with the material than they were able to in Clones, but the scenes still play rather flatly.

     Things pick up again once Palpatine, secretly the evil power behind the civil war the galaxy has found itself thrust into, begins to seduce young Anakin into joining him. It starts with a conversation in an opera house. Palpatine tells Anakin a tale of an evil Sith lord who gained knowledge that, while forbidden by the Jedi, is sought after by Anakin. Here, McDiarmid delivers the single best acting moment in the entire new trilogy of films, manipulating the emotionally troubled Anakin by telling him exactly what he wants to hear with a sly subtleness that is a delight to watch. It is the first major step in Anakin’s fall from grace, which, from the events in the classic Star Wars trilogy, we know he is destined to make. This is the story material that even casual fans of the Star Wars movies have been waiting to see for almost two decades. Aggravatingly, though, Lucas has scripted some of these moments a bit too broadly. Anakin’s later final conversion to evil seems a bit hasty, especially considering the fact that, mere moments before, he was questioning a particularly rash action he had just committed.

    Two other big moments in the film come off better, though they are not without a few minor problems. Anakin’s slaughter of the Jedi knights in their temple is done primarily off-screen, but is still presented rather chillingly. The subsequent killing of other Jedi by the troops they were leading into battle around the galaxy, though, feels a bit rushed. The film’s penultimate scene, where Anakin becomes encased in the familiar armor of Darth Vader, is chillingly realized, though the final shot of the scene undercuts the built-up tension.

     Lucas had held off for many years on making this prequel trilogy, stating that visual effects technology had not reached a point where it could realize his vision for the stories. Now that he has the tools to create the vast alien vistas and intense battles he has envisioned, Lucas sometimes lets his characters get lost in all the visual clutter. Characters have important conversations in surroundings that reduce them to only one of many moving elements in a scene. The end result is that the audience is as likely to be distracted by a passing spaceship or the antics of a robot in the background, as they are to be concentrating on what the scene has to offer. Perhaps if Lucas had taken the time to more fully develop the scripts for the three new films, concentrating on polishing some of the more cumbersome story elements, the new trilogy of films would probably have been better critically received.

     Despite Revenge Of The Sith’s rather downbeat ending, Lucas does manage to end this new trilogy on a high note. There is a solid feeling of closure, with the film’s last shot beautifully recalling one of the iconic images of the first Star Wars film. Lucas’s tale, for better or worse, is now done. Except, of course, for the already announced television series set to premier in the fall of 2006. It seems that there are spin-off projects even in a galaxy far, far away.