I had a bad feeling about this.
I was skeptical, to say the least. In fact, let us say that I had pretty much lost all
faith in George Lucas. The first of his prequels was a complete mess with stilted,
sometimes incoherent dialogue and some really stupid moments. The second was a vast
improvement, but the love story sub-plot was dead on arrival. I expected this one to be
better than the other two (for one thing, it had an amazing trailer) but that was about
the best I had come to hope for.
In short, when I got in line for the midnight show last night at 8:30 PM (and I was
still far from the front), I did so mainly because I owed it to the four year old within
myself. The "Star Wars" movies were the first that I remember caring about. I had a lot
of the action figures, I watched them whenever they came on television (yes, my friends,
it was a time before VCRs.or at least before my parents could afford one) and, according
to my parents, when I lost my Chewbacca figure I was inconsolable until they drove to town
and bought me a replacement. "Star Wars", like those damned midichlorians Qui Gon mentions
in "The Phantom Menace", is in my blood. It's part of who I am. That sounds ridiculous,
but it's still true. So there was no way that I wasn't going to see this movie as soon as
possible. I had to know if it fulfilled the promise of the dark, sinister trailer or if
Lucas had found a way to screw it up as he had with the others.
I am happy to report that Lucas has not screwed this one up.
In fact, if you want my first impression: this may very well be the best of ALL the
"Star Wars" films.
I'm not really going to get into the plot. If you're a true geek (like me) then you
know what's got to happen to connect "Attack
of the Clones" to "A New Hope". If not, then
you've got some huge surprises ahead of you. The film is every bit as dark and nasty as
the trailer would have us believe. In fact, it's even more sinister. I have no
reservations in saying that this film is so dark it makes "The
Empire Strikes Back" look
like the candy-coated silliness of "The
Phantom Menace". No, I am not exaggerating.
"Revenge of the Sith" is ballsy filmmaking; the sort of ballsy filmmaking that I would
never have thought George Lucas capable of delivering in a million years. This film goes
places I never could have imagined, and it does so with muscular pacing and a rich amount
of character development. Gone is the awful dialogue that undermined even the best moments
of "Attack of the Clones". Gone are the pandering, toy-selling impulses that governed "The
Phantom Menace" and even "Return of the Jedi". This film is as serious as the "Star Wars"
universe can get, and it has to be. It is, after all, the film where the nice guy we've
been getting to know in the past two movies becomes the most dreaded man in the
universe.
There is much to recommend here. For one thing, the actors seem finally to have been
given some direction. Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman are both fine actors. If you
doubt this, might I recommend "Life as a House" and "Closer". In the other prequels,
however, they look lost. They look as though they've been sent adrift in a sea of digital
effects and weird creatures without a shred of guidance. Here, George seems to have
realized that he has damn good actors at his disposal and has figured out how to make use
of them. Hayden and Natalie are perfect here. Hayden, especially, hits all the right
notes. He's so much better than the petulant whiner he was in "Attack
of the Clones". He's
finally a man we can see as Vader. When Anakin finally gets where we all know he's going
we believe every path he has taken to get there. Ian McDiarmid is great as Senator
Palpatine, though he gets a little hammy once he truly turns into the Emperor. He's not as
strong as he was in the other prequels, but he's not terrible. And Ewan McGregor remains
the best thing about the recent films. He's maybe even a better Obi Wan than Alec
Guinness (I know that seems like blasphemy, but he really is that good).
The plot is also a distinct improvement. There is not a moment of wasted story. There
isn't a single scene that could be jettisoned to improve the film. If anything, the film
could be even longer. There was a moment in the middle of the movie, let us call it
Anakin's "turning point", that seemed a bit abrupt. Things that happened in this scene
all happened just a tad too fast. If Lucas had given us just one more scene to expand on
these developments then they may have seemed more organic. But that's pretty much my only
complaint about the structure of the film. Otherwise, there isn't a single moment that's
boring or goes on longer than it should. Even the original trilogy can't make that claim.
The plot and structure are damned near perfect. The dialogue is also vastly superior. It's
not Tarantino dialogue by any stretch of the imagination, but the actors have learned how
to make even the most potentially terrible line feel natural. It's the talent that
everyone in the original trilogy seemed to have a good handle on. But even the writing
itself has undergone a vast improvement since the last movie. It's still not the greatest
dialogue, but it's never distracting either. There is no "I hate sand" line here. And the
humor in the movie (such a sore point in any discussion of "The
Phantom Menace") is
organic and never feels forced.
There are some minor problems, but they are barely worth mentioning. For one thing, I
found Yoda's manner of speaking to be more annoying than ever. Seriously, the
backward-talking could use some work. Also, I was disappointed with the lack of screen
time given to Jar Jar Binks. I know he's almost universally reviled, but the orange
bastard has grown on me over the past couple of years. I've begun to find him endearing.
At the very least, Lucas owes the guy a little better than the minute of screen time that
he's given here. Plus, the wookiees don't get much to do in this film, and that's a shame.
It's as if they're only here because Lucas wanted to appease all the Chewbacca fans in
the audience. And John Williams's score doesn't give us anything new to hum. He
mostly re-uses themes from the old trilogy. Then again, when you've got material like
"The Imperial March" and "Leia's Theme" in your back catalogue, how can you not? This is
damned good stuff.
Yet those are simply nitpicks. Of all the "Star Wars" films, this one feels most like
an epic. It's a "Star Wars" film for thinking adults, maybe the only "Star Wars" film for
thinking adults. It toys with themes like the corruption of power. It even takes some
subtle jabs at the political system and warns us where we might end up if we're not
careful. (Compare the American political climate of the past few years to the plot of
"Phantom Menace" and "Attack
of the Clones" and tell me if it doesn't send a couple shivers
up your spine.) This is, after all, the story of a good man losing his soul, a story of a
man becoming a machine. It's ballsy stuff for a series of movies that have often been
described as children's films. Plus, it's got some great lightsaber fights and a really
cool space battle.
If nothing else gets your ass to theater, maybe this will: this is the first ever "Star
Wars" movie that I wouldn't take a kid to. If you find that as refreshing as I do, then
you've got to go.
