Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Hayden Christensen plays Anakin Skywalker, who is drawn to the dark side of the force in Star Wars: Episode Three, Revenge of The Sith. - CONTRIBUTED
STAR WARS: The Revenge of the Sith ended with a dawn. A man and a woman look out toward the horizon beneath a cloud sun dappled sky filled with fleecy golden clouds. The image speaks of possibilities, of new beginnings. That beginning came years about three decades ago, so this is merely the end. An end that failed to live up to the beginning.
Revenge of the Sith was the final movie in the three prequels to the Star Wars trilogy. In the face of the disappointment that one produced and the sheer unapologetic boredom brought on by episode II (in fact writer/director George Lucas should have issued personal apologies for that one) fans may well have approached this final leg with trepidation.
Fortunately, it is a significant improvement over episode II. Truthfully, the film barely had a chance to live up to its true potential because episodes one and two, which were to build the momentum to this finale, were so bad. (Admittedly my enjoyment of the film was hampered by the fact that the 5:10 showing at the Palace Cineplex featured sound which wavered between bad and terrible.)
THE OLD MAGIC
So, though it is a better movie than the previous two, Revenge of the Sith, has light years to travel before it can reach the calibre of the original three, episodes IV through XI, but there are at least signs that there was some attempt to capture the old magic. Though the film continues with visually stimulating fare, they returned to the idea that a significant part of what made the original stories so enjoyable was the interplay of the characters, not just the fascinating other worldliness of the characters like Chewbacca.
Interestingly, where the first three films focused on the side of good, episode one to three have really been about the boy who would be Darth Vader. We want to know, as Yoda puts it, why "twisted by the dark side young Skywalker he is".
The film tries to visually capture Anakin's descent into darkness, shrouding him not only in a dark cloak, darkening the entire picture. Yet a part of believing Anakin's transformation to Darth Vader (apart from his need to change from a skinny white boy to James Earl Jones) is the lack of passion between himself and Padme, which is supposedly the catalyst which sends him to the dark side.
Fortunately, Padme no longer looks as though she was cut from cardboard. She barely makes it up to the three dimensional level, but there is a marked improvement from Attack of the Clones. Yet Padme and Anakin simply do not sizzle on the screen, so Anakin's willingness to betray all he has known is not very convincing. Fortunately the action level toward the end kicks in and where the drama fails, there are at least interesting light sabre battles to watch.
And of course there is Yoda. Fascinating he is. Almost every moment that Yoda is on the screen allows the entertainment value of the flick to skyrocket. Benefiting from the improvement in technology the little green man is probably the only character who has improved in this prequel.
Revenge of the Sith is certainly better than The Phantom Menace, and Attack of the Clones but then paint drying would easily have been better than those.
