The Good News is that George Lucas has promised to make no more Star Wars films.
The bad news is that Revenge of the Sith is the link between the first two dreadful episodes and New Hope. And to be fair, it is nowhere as bad as the first two episodes.

Lucas almost made a good film. There are scenes that you get an inkling of the film that could have been. And these were very “human” scenes that dealt with loyalty, love, loss, betrayal. Unfortunately the computer generated characters kept interfering with these scenes. Alhough the technology is better than in the original trilogy, the fights better choreographed - this film too is done in by it technical perfection.
Mostly it remains a 3-D computer game into which a whole host of characters have wandered on. The Original series had a soul, the over reliance on Industrial Light and Magic has rendered this trilogy soul less.
The story is how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. And since we know who survived - having watched New Hope eons ago - there is no suspense . Hayden Christiansen as Ankin Skywark is terrible. The only person who is possibly worse than him is Natalie Portman as Padme. Despite them being the central characters in the film, you really don’t care a damn about their fate.
Ewan MacGregor as Obi Wan Kanobi sounds as though he is participating in an elocution class. How on earth did he grow up to be Alec Guiness!
The build up Count Dooku - Christopher Lee - in the Attack of the Clones and then behead him in the first ten minutes of this film begining. Samuel Jackson is as ernest as ever - God! they used to make extremely sanctimonious Jedi Knights:). The two characters who shine are Yoda - as cryptic as ever - and Palpatine - the Chancellor who becomes the Emperor. The scenes of political manouvering work. The scenes with the computer graphics don’t. More than anything else, i missed the repartee and the humour of the original series. This lot of three is singularly humourless!
Anakin is a young Macbeth whose actions fulfil the destiny he wants to avoid. The death of Padme as a consequence of Anakin’s attempts to prevent it are inevitable. But, the tragedy of this doesn’t come through. And Hayden Christiansen plays Macbeth as Hamlet - which really doesn’t do anything for either the character or the film. There is a scene in the Temple where Anakin faces the ‘younglings’ - that more than anything else transforms him into Darth Vader. Even in this scene that sense of tragedy is missing. The switch from Anakin to Darth Vader is also inexplicable.
The last 30 minutes of the film shows us a glimpse of what the series could have been. But, it is too little too late. There death of Padme, and the Death of Anakin are done well. The birth of Darth Vader is also shot well.
All in all, a disappointing film. Not as bad as the Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. Not as Good as Empire Strikes Back and New Hope. In the same league as Return of the Jedi. I would like to see a Director’s cut that amalgamates the new trilogy into a 4 hour special. Cut down the story. It may tell itself a lot better in a lot less time.
If you are indulging your nostalgia go see the film. IF you want a few hours of entertainment Nazar is probably a better option.

Tags: Reviews