Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith

Director: George Lucas
Starring: Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman


It is the last in the saga.
It has not one, but two prequels to atone for.
And regardless of your opinions, everyone wants to see how it all ends.

Long before its release, Lucas made it clear that this would be the darkest Star Wars ever. And it couldn’t be any other way. Anakin’s fall from grace is the tipping point, like Lucifer deciding he’d rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. But before he could turn, something had to break him. With all that on its shoulders, Revenge Of The Sith had a lot to deliver.

But Sith doesn’t do that. Not even close.

The Emperor / Palapatine’s seduction of Anakin is clumsy and transparent, as is the Chosen One’s uncertainty before deciding to betray his Jedi brethren. It didn’t have to be gradual – men have turned faster, and for lesser reasons – but it had to be compelling. Nobody – not the Jedi Council who ignores him, nor the manipulative Emperor - betrays Anakin sufficiently for his corruption, his hatred to be so complete.

When Anakin is sent forth to implement genocide he seems more like a young punk with a light sabre out to bust some heads – he is literally, a boy in a hood. Not the general Obi Wan spoke of to young Skywalker who “helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights.” The Jedi are slaughtered, but it is not the ethnic cleansing-style massacre we envisioned for years, and disappointingly, it is not led by Anakin.

Sith doesn’t lack for impressive set pieces: A blistering opening sequence where Obi Wan and Anakin rescue Chancellor Palpatine is perhaps the most exciting of all six movies; three major light saber battles (one between Obi Wan and a multi-limbed General Grevious is a vintage chinese sword fight given a Jedi spin); and full-scale war on the wookie planet. All of which fail to save how hollow Sith feels. Though Lucas wisely tones down the heavy-handed Bollywood romance of Clones, the script still makes you cringe in too many places. Forget cheesy lines. Some of the dialogue is downright lazy and at many points the movie turns into an ILM animator’s show reel / wet dream – ironically, a lesser evil. Not to mention a misguided attempt to be topical with Anakin echoing Bush’s own edict in his war on terror: “If you’re not with me, you’re against me.”

The movie’s one solid character is Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor still having fun, and still can’t wipe the smirk off his face during fight scenes). Obi Wan is the only one who seems to have matured through the prequels bringing him closer to Alec Guinness’ version than any Anakin to the Big Black we know and love in Episodes IV-VI. It is Obi Wan who feels the sting of Anakin’s subversion, who has to marshall the resolve to kill his student and friend, and the one who has to endure a life of exile while watching over the infant Luke. Not enough though. Natalie Portman is given nothing to do except cry; Samuel L. Jackson is well, Samuel L. Jackson; and while Vader was one badass motherfucker, Anakin merely acts like a spoilt brat whining about how he’s being disrespected and ignored. Hardly the stuff that turns a Jedi prodigy into the Dark Lord who has kept a tight grip on our consciousness.

It all ends in tears, but only because we mourn the loss of a childhood dream. When Anakin rises as Lord Vader for the first time, it might as well be the Frankenstein monster (you’ll see). The circle is now complete. And we will have to live with it.