Star Wars falls short of mark

The good news for Star Wars fans is that “Revenge of the Sith,” the last installment in George Lucas’ iconic space epic, is easily the best film of the troubled prequel trilogy. The bad news is that given the quality of the first two movies, this isn’t exactly a shining endorsement.

With “Episode III,” Lucas turns the series down a dark and brutal road. It is Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader, after all. The more mature delivery is a welcome and needed change to the story. But that alone can’t make the movie great.

Hayden Christensen is given the unenviable task of transitioning Anakin to Vader, and he just isn’t quite up to it. While he is given plenty of time to look brooding, he often comes off as looking constipated. Even more unfortunate is that he simply isn’t able to shake the high-pitched whine out his voice that makes it so hard to believe this is the man who becomes the imposing and baritone villain known as Darth Vader.

Ewan McGregor is far more impressive in his role as he attempts to play Alec Guinness, playing Obi-Wan Kenobi. As in “Attack of the Clones,” it is eerie how well he does this. His performance would have been spectacular had he not been forced to recite some of the worst dialogue ever written. Just try and listen to the impassioned line, “He killed Younglings, Padme!” without laughing.

The clunky love story between Anakin and Padme was one of the major flaws of “AOTC,” and in “ROTS,” the cheese reaches epic proportions. Every line between the lovers elicits snickers from the audience. Lucas hired an acting coach to help with the major dialogue scenes, but he must have been busy eating limited edition “Star Wars” M&Ms, because the acting is terrible.

There are some bright spots, however, such as British thesp Ian McDiarmid as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious/The Emperor. He is deliciously evil as the apparent mastermind behind almost every event in the prequel trilogy, betraying friend and foe alike to achieve his goals.

The two obvious strong points in the film are the story and the special effects. Seeing as how George Lucas and ILM practically invented special effects as we know them today, it is no surprise that the visuals are amazing. The epic battles and lightsaber duels are of an unprecedented quality and do not disappoint.

What is frustrating about the action sequences is that Lucas only exposes the viewer to 15 seconds of spectacular visuals before cutting to some other unrelated action sequence on the other side of the galaxy. This in effect robs possibly stunning scenes of their context and keeps the audience uninvolved with what is happening.

As a comparison, look at “The Empire Strikes Back,” widely agreed to be the best movie in the franchise and which, it should be noted, was not directed by George Lucas. Famous sequences like the Millennium Falcon navigating the asteroid field and Luke’s battle with Darth Vader are uninterrupted from beginning to end, thus heightening their emotional impact. Lucas delivers the action of “ROTS” with all the depth and nuance of a Cheetos commercial.

As for the story, Lucas manages to portray Anakin’s betrayal and downfall as the operatic tragedy that it should be. That the story manages to shine through terrible dialogue and acting speaks volumes.

The most interesting aspect of the story is that Anakin’s turn to the darkside is not driven by a lust for power, but by his love for Padme. It is just a shame this tragic concluding act is delivered with the competence of a high-school play.

Another distraction is Lucas’ apparent swipe at President Bush. In the climatic battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan, Anakin turns to his old friend and shouts, “If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy,” to which Kenobi responds, “Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes.” Take that G.W.!

Seriously though, Lucas may be entitled to put whatever message he pleases into his films, but this is “Star Wars.” Contemporary political commentary does not belong here and only brings the movie down.

While there are many things to gripe about in “Episode III,” in retrospect, it’s perhaps unfair to hold the film to too high a standard. “Star Wars” is at its core escapist fantasy fare designed to entertain, and in that facet Lucas succeeds admirably. “Revenge of the Sith” is an extremely fun movie, and true fans will go home happy.

Grade: C

Patrick Christiana can be reached at pchristi@utk.edu