star wars episode 3 – revenge of the sith

a disturbance in the Force…

review by jonathan hicks

I won’t go into the details o the film. No doubt everyone reading this review has seen it by now and me going over what happened is nothing more than repeating what came before. What I’m going to tell you is how the film made me feel.

I have to say, I gave the film its chance. It’s no secret that I gave the first two films of the prequels good reviews, but these reviews were biased by the fact that I was a Star Wars fan and I wanted them to be good. I never did the old ‘I’ve been waiting twenty years for these films’ rhetoric because I honestly haven’t. I’d been waiting since the making of Episode 1 was announced. That’s it.

Looking back I feel that I can look at the film more objectively – perhaps cynically, as it has been suggested – and view them for what they are, which is nothing but computer generated eye-candy. If that’s the case, and if the first two films were just pots of sweets, then Revenge of the Sith is the whole damn sweet shop. And too much chocolate makes you sick.

I’m one of those people who latch onto any big project because of what it is about, and then do my best to appreciate the project because it’s regarding something I care about, something I’m a fan of. But there comes a time when you realise that the film you’re trying so desperately to enjoy is nothing but a huge expensive fireworks display and you’ve almost forced yourself to appreciate it; it amazes you when you see it but, at the end of it all, and with time to reflect, it’s emotionally hollow.

And this is how I feel about Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

It’s great to look at. The special effects are amazing. There are some wonderful computer generated moments. But that’s all they are - moments. But special effects do not make a movie. If you have no emotional involvement with what is happening on screen then it’s pointless. This is the problem with the Star Wars prequels, the fact that there is plenty to see but there is very little to relate to. In fact, I think that any emotional involvement that can be had is in spite of the films. A rose-tinted nostalgic memory of what happens in the original trilogy is what gives the scenes their strength but standing alone these same scenes are nothing more than by-the-numbers plot set-ups that contains character moments which fall short of any expectations of the viewer. How can you care about what happens to the characters if they are nothing more than two-dimensional cut-out figures surrounded by special effects?

Revenge of the Sith suffers more than the first two prequels because of this. It promises so much but delivers so little. For example, you wonder exactly how Anakin will turn to the Dark Side. Well, he does it by telling Palpatine ‘yeah, okay, I’ll do what you want’. Yes, certainly a huge moment of character development right there. That hollow few seconds is supposed to set up the entire character drive of Darth Vader in the original trilogy so it’s no wonder it feels like a huge letdown. Two lines and a bow later, Anakin joins the bad guys and goes on the rampage. If anyone had nipped out to the toilet during this short scene they’d have wondered if they’d passed out for twenty minutes in the foyer and missed a whole chunk of the film. Even the end is rushed, with barely time to fit in the creation of Vader and the birth of the twins, all packed in so that the film could be over. You have to wonder if all this was skipped over because there were no huge special effects shots to consider and for some reason the director thought it might bore the audience. It may have surprised him to find that many of his older audience wanted to spend time with these moments, not have them brushed aside to make way for yet more pixels. It’s as if the director just wanted to get past these moments so that he could get to his action scenes, show off how amazing digital effects are and con the audience into believing that they’re watching an epic piece of cinema by dazzling us with explosions and laser blasts. I’m sorry that I’m not that easily impressed.

The film progresses at an impressive rate, throwing the viewer straight into the thick of it all straight away. It’s undeniable that the first scenes are mind-blowing, huge vistas of battling starships over a sparkling world. It’s amazing how quickly these shots become repetitive and boring, as if the director is doing his best to keep you hooked by continually forcing CGI into your face, promising new highs, one after the other.

Clunky dialogue and uninspiring acting permeates this film as it did the other two. Many people are willing to forgive this in the film, but if that’s the case then they’re only seeing the film for the reasons listed above; special effects and fight scenes. Some might even say that the film is no Citizen Kane, that it was never meant to be a masterpiece of cinema. I think it’s a weak excuse, an excuse voiced by dedicated Star Wars fans who would rather explain away the failings of these movies then face up to the fact that their favourite franchise has been let down by a man who’s vision is that of a producer, not a director. It’s said it’s all based on the old action serials of the 30’s-50’s. Well, I like them, but they don’t make them like that anymore, and there’s a good reason why – because that kind of acting and plot was never very good. There’s no use harking back to a golden age that hardly anyone remembers or barely cares about. Why use cutting-edge technology to create the world, only to have it stained by terrible dialogue and wooden characters? It’s a clash of two worlds that help to cancel each other out.

One excuse I’ve heard for the past few years is ‘you didn’t like them because George Lucas made them for kids’. Well, excuse me if I’m one of those people who kept Star Wars alive for the last two decades only to be told that the new films in the franchise I had supported so staunchly were ‘not for you’. I guess I’ll just shrug it off and accept the films for what they are, then, eh?

I’ve also been informed that these are the way Lucas has made them and that’s that. The films are this way because that’s the way they are, and if I think I could do better then I should make my own films. Well, I don’t disagree with that, but as a paying customer I reserve the right to complain about what I have been presented with. I don’t pay for a cooked meal, find it’s been filled with dead rats, and then eat it anyway because ‘the chef obviously knows more about cooking than I do’. Of course I’m going to complain.

It appears that these kinds of films are what people want, and that glitzy whiz-bang movies are the staple of the movie-going experience, and that the money-orientated corporations who just want the money from people’s pockets are the norm. Lowest denominator content aimed to dazzle the audience into submission. I find it tragic that it took a Star Wars film to make me weep for the future of the film industry.

Nah, not really. Other than the big iguana and the dodgy acting, I thought it was really good. Pissed you off, though, didn't it? Loosen up!