'Revenge Of The Sith' review

[May 19, 11pm - WARNING: May contain minor spoilers!!]

Well, I’m 30 minutes removed from the final credits of the final Star Wars film, ending a journey that started for me at age 6. So I’ve already checked my credibility at the door. Feel free to throw me into the nerd pool with all the other fanboys and Lucas apologists. Yes, I liked Episode I and Episode II. I even loved parts of Ep. II. Yet I’ve given up understanding how pop culture has left Star Wars on its pedestal, but to the consternation of many, there it sits. Most detailed complaints about the Star Wars prequels, not to mention the Original Trilogy, are valid from a critical standpoint. But what they fail to note is the genius of Lucas’ myth, perhaps the most intriguing and complete modern pop myth of the last 50 years.

Episode III: The Revenge Of The Sith brings Lucas’ vision full circle in a remarkable way. While it creates a nearly perfect bridge between the overly political and complex prequels and the simple story structure of the OT, Episode III is most enjoyable for its light touch. It’s as if Lucas returned to his Saturday serial inspirations and structured each event in the film to lead directly to a kickass lightsaber battle. Yet, it brings the events of the previous five films together flawlessly. Gone is the heavy-handed direction of the first two prequels, replaced by subtle humor and breakneck pacing.

Criticisms? Sure, the acting and dialogue is occasionally (okay, often) wooden, but if you suffered through the Sound of Music lovey-dovey scenes of Ep. II, you will be pleasantly relieved by the lightness (or is it brevity?) of the Anakin/Padme scenes in ROTS. Frankly, I thought the tenderness between them was palpable, even if their lines sell it short. If Natalie Portman was woefully miscast in this role, her doe-eyed beauty carries her further here than in the previous two films where she was called on to be more of an action hero. Hayden Christensen has improved enormously over Ep. II, and I found his performance to be more than adequate, if not spectacular. Digital Yoda continues to be a remarkable achievement (although his ass-backward-speak seems like, in 30 years of hindsight, a bad move considering how much dialogue Yoda’s saddled with here). R2-D2 gets some genuinely funny moments, and C-3PO has fortunately given up any attempts at humor leftover from Ep. II (all polished up, Threepio returns to his OT look and demeanor).

And Ewan McGregor? Man, I was so jazzed when he was cast as Obi-Wan, and the payoff here is just huge. I thought his performance was note perfect throughout Episode III. He was probably the best thing about Eps. I and II, but here the performance comes together perfectly. His barely discernible grin as Grievous draws his sabers? Just absolutely perfect. Remember how Alec Guiness always sounded so regretful talking about Vader? You’ll feel that even more after seeing McGregor’s performance. Lucas could have screwed up every other aspect of these prequels, but his decision to cast McGregor in the role of Obi-Wan might just be his most prescient (or maybe fortuitous) decision.

Ian McDiarmid is the scene stealer of ROTS (and getting the best reviews), but there were moments where he was borderline over-the-top. Frankly, the Emperor was always a little hokey so it’s a tough performance to pull off. He fares much better in his early scenes as Palpatine, tempting Anakin with convincing deviousness. If there is any payoff from the first two prequels, it’s in seeing how perfectly planned and executed Palpatine’s plans have been from the get-go. And it’s pretty great fun watching him relish the opportunity to show his true evil face to the galaxy for the first time.

Minor characters are appropriately pushed to the background. The much-touted General Grievous is only involved briefly (although he turns out to be a critical pawn in Palpatine’s game). Samuel L. Jackson’s Mace Windu provides some vital tension to Anakin’s dilemma (although Jackson’s performance remains vexingly unconvincing). Chewbacca is here mainly in the service of nostalgia, but it works great. And Jimmy Smits’ Bail Organa reveals his small but important role in the saga (beyond just being Leia’s adoptive father).

And Lucas? So much to pile on about I guess, at least in relation to the prequels. But ask yourself this – how much more painful would Ep. I have been if it had been turned over to some Hollywood hack like Brett Ratner? Probably unforgivable. But we’ve always forgiven Lucas of his shortcomings because the overall Star Wars saga is just so damned compelling. In hindsight, Episodes I and II should have been condensed, possibly into a single film. But Episode III is a taut adventure that mainly concerns us with the principal characters. Supposedly, Lucas jettisoned some side plots late in the edit, and it really shows in the final cut. The climactic battles (Anakin vs. Obi-Wan, Yoda vs. Palpatine) have real resonance because they have real stakes. You sense that Yoda and Obi-Wan realize just how deeply screwed the Jedi are, and that they for the first time feel the depth of their failure. For decades, we’ve believed the Jedi to be these flawless warriors, but now we see just how badly they’ve been duped.

There are so many cool, geektastic moments in Episode III. When Obi-Wan picks up Anakin’s lightsaber and walks off with it – completely subtle and just so freakin’ cool (interestingly, we never see the heavily marketed red Darth Vader saber – you have to wait until Episode IV for that!). Until now, it was just so hard to reconcile the prequels with the OT. No more – now I can’t wait to watch Episodes I to VI in sequence. There are nitpicks to be sure: how does Obi-Wan age so much? Does it really take 20 years to build a Death Star, when they rebuilt it in, like five or six? But the six films flow together better than any of us had any right to expect. And the final shot is the far and away the best of the six films - sheer perfection.

By the way, all the contemporary “political overtones” that everyone is talking about are just so overblown. There is nothing here that we wouldn’t have expected to hear 30 years ago. It’s the Empire, geddit? We’ve been hearing about it for, like, EVER. If you’re a Star Wars fan, none of the yammering about the Republic, democracy or empires will seem the least bit out of place and not the least bit topical. If you see a little bit of Karl Rove or Darth Dubya in the Emperor, well that’s understandable enough I guess. But I don’t think Lucas gave it a moment of thought.

So that’s it. I was surprised by the film, despite knowing pretty much the whole plot. It doesn’t beat you over the head with its tragic ending – instead, we feel everything crumble apart steadily and inevitably. It’s a credit to the Lucas and Christensen that we can sympathize with a villain that was first introduced to us as nothing less than the personification of evil. I don’t dispute that you have to hand yourself over to this story to buy it in full. But for those of us that have been waiting to see Anakin fall to his doom for 30 years, Revenge Of The Sith is deeply gratifying and – dare I say it? – instantly classic.