Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

It’s over. I feel numb.

As if the hype for this adventure weren’t already monumental, I went and made it even more so by waiting to see the film until I could see it with my baby brother. I’m quite thankful that that desire fulfilled itself so smoothly. Four days before my brother began his Bradley fighting vehicle training he managed to get a four day weekend for Memorial Day. I convinced him to make the trip down here so he could enjoy a couple days fishing in Florida, and we could wrap up the Star Wars franchise together.

When I walked out of the theater, I turned to him and quietly sighed “Thank God.” Episode III was the film the fans had been waiting for. High on action and high on pathos, Lucas finally put all his tools and talents together to walk Star Wars off into the twin sunset in a satisfying manner.

But I found it all somehow anti-climactic (and you all probably will feel that way about this review as well). I expected to feel more – during the film and after. I expected to feel some sense of completion, some closure, but somewhere towards the end of the film I realized I had closed myself to Star Wars long ago.

It’s a little like that relationship or friendship – and we’ve all had them – that lasts well beyond its prime. You can remember the fun and thrills you shared in the past, you still relish their memory, but you’ve slowly come to realize that the only commonalities you now share are those memories. It’s just the natural course of life; you both grow and change. You become different people than you were at the start. Neither of you have changed so much that you hate each other (things might have been easier that way), but the fire of the past is but a spark in the present. You part ways, and as you do you realize how long overdue that break may have been.

I find myself with very little to say about this last film. It’s just… done. I feel a mite guilty that I’m not doing more gushing; it really is an exceptional film. Everybody involved stepped their game up big time for this conclusion. In fact, as well put together as Revenge of the Sith was, it makes both Episode I & II look like rough drafts or practice runs for this film, the film that counted. That makes for a great ride this time around, but it doesn’t save the films that preceded it (especially Attack of the Clones) from mediocrity.

Though this review won’t go as in-depth as the others, I definitely want to applaud a few things in this film that I particularly enjoyed:

Ian McDiarmid's Palpatine/Darth Sidious – Though it’s dramatically unfortunate for the character of Darth Vader, this is McDiarmid’s movie. The future Emperor’s delicious manipulations of a naïve and temperamental Anakin are the highlights of the film. His dialogue is smart and sharp and twisted, and you can see the fun McDiarmid is having in the part. He stands so far above every other character in the film that one wonders why that attention couldn’t have spent on everyone. The only moment in this film that gave me chills was the moment Senator Palpatine pulled his hood over his head and became Darth Sidious for the first time. His face dimmed and his eyes lit up, just as they did in Jedi. Darth Vader’s debut was well crafted, but my investment in Anakin as a character was so diluted by that point that it was almost an afterthought to Sidious’s reveal.

The Opening Shot – If you look back on my critique, I said that the flaw of the battles in Attack of the Clones was that there was nothing to focus on; it was just a bunch of noise. Well, it was like George Lucas predicted my criticism, and gave me a long take within a massive space battle that completely focused on Anakin and Obi-Wan. This shot was everything that the prequels should have been. Exciting, imaginative, and (dare I say it?) stylish. Where was this sort of ingenuity in the first two prequels?

Yoda Lives – Yoda is as fully realized a character as any other in the film. His first appearance in a shaded room of the Jedi Temple is a wonderful combination of exceptional digital effects and brooding atmosphere. The performance of Yoda in this film ranks a close second behind Gollum as the most masterful creation of a digital character in film history. We’ll see if this rank holds up after King Kong debuts later this year.

Anakin vs. Obi-Wan – The battle we’ve all been waiting for delivers, even if it does go on several minutes too long. I didn’t think that Lucas and Nick Gillard could top the furious few moments in Episode I with Obi-Wan and Darth Maul, but they did in the opening minutes of this battle. I started to lose interest once the fight moved to the river of lava, but the fight through the control center was the best of the franchise – passionate, skillful, and fucking fast! Kudos to both McGregor and Christensen for putting together the end-all-be-all of lightsaber duels.

I don’t want to focus on the negative, because now that it’s all over, much is forgiven. Who wants to fall back into the dirt after all we’ve been through these past 25 years?

I’m gonna close on a positive note. This is a great film, and I highly recommend it. It is gritty, atmospheric, and the characters once again become the center of the Star Wars universe. Lucas closes his opus in grand style, and I’m finally thankful that he chose to come back and tell this story. We have closure.

Now, I have no further reason to avoid growing up.

Shit.

Final Grade for Revenge of the Sith: B+