Featured Film Review
'Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith' 2005 LucasFilm starring Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen Length: 140 mins
(A rant without spoilers)
Has anyone else NOT seen this film yet? I finally got the chance and ... well ... I was disappointed.
Not in the story. Lucas did an excellent job tying all of the movies together with this third and final episode.
And of course, who could be disappointed in the special effects? They were top-notch as usual. The Star Wars universe is one of the best conceived and fully realized living environments ever presented to a theater audience. As soon as any of the Star Wars movies starts, we not only believe in the worlds shown, we felt as if we should talk to someone about making reservations to Endor for the next vacation.
So what was disappointing? The use of too many comic-moments. The stilted language. The acting.
Before you get a rope, let's break this down.
- Comic Relief -
The Star Wars saga is a serious story. It's a dark story of the cycle of hope turned to darkness turned to redemption and hope again. Lucas's first two films, Episode IV & V, reflected this very well. The stories were presented in a serious fashion that left us rooting for the heroes. Comic relief was present in the form of R2-D2 & C3PO, and to some extent, in the form of Yoda. But it wasn't too over the top.
Then came the battle of Endor in Episode VI and the Ewoks. Don't get me wrong, I liked the Ewoks. They were interesting critters, and I liked the juxtaposition of primitive agrarian society vs. advanced industrial nations in relation to the war between good vs. evil. But Lucas really added a little too much "cutsie-ness" to the Ewoks that really put the ending over-the-top.
This over-the-top comic relief was cranked up another notch in Episode I with Jar-Jar Binks. Again, I understand the need to lighten the mood a little and to appeal to the younger audiences, but ... Jar-Jar ??? That was like dumping a pool's worth of water on a barbeque fire.
I think Lucas listened to his audience's groans and mumbles of discontent, because he started pulling back on the comic relief in Episode II. But he went right back to it again in III. R2-D2 falls victim to being the comic-relief character in this one with his chirps and "waaaouuu" noise of surprise used way too much. And then there are the Wookies yodeling like Tarzan...*shudder*. Thank the filming deities Lucas refrained from adding another Jar Jar Binks type character. If he'd done that, I would have lost all respect for the man.
- Stilted Language -
The script for this last episode was pretty heavy-handed. While appropriate to underscore how ancient and established the Jedi order had become, the rhythm of the language was cumbersome, requiring a high level of skill to be able to pull off the scene with any feeling of credibility. Not surprisingly, Ewen McGregor and Ian McDiarmid could do it. Even Natalie Portman did a fairly decent job. But Samuel L. Jackson and Hayden Christensen struggled. It was like watching foreign actors use the English language for the first time. All of the emotion and body language was correct. But every time they opened their mouth, the timing of the words and inflections didn't seem to match the moment. The words were memorized and used at all of the right moments, but the actors didn't seem to understand how the words coming out of their mouth related to the character.
But of all that, the thing that disappointed me the most? The acting. One particular actor, to be exact.
And although I'll probably be lynched for saying this: Hayden Christensen was NOT Anakin Skywalker. I was disappointed in him in the second episode, but hoped he'd grown as an actor for this one. Nope. I've not seen him in any other movie, so I really don't have an idea of his acting skills outside of the Star Wars universe. But based on episodes II & III, I think Lucas was crazy to give him a lead role. The guy has the looks, I'll grant him that. He's got the scowl, and the brooding down pat. But I don't know if it was his struggle with the language used in the script, or what, but I just never saw Aniken on screen. I saw a guy in costume talking to Obi wan, glaring at Windue and chatting up Padame.
So... Okay... That's it. Sorry if it seems like a harsh review, but I know there has to be others out there that saw the same thing.
I'm gonna go prowl around Endor for a while. The Ewoks may look like teddy-bears, but they sure do a mean drum circle!
Reviewer: TygerCub
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If you would like to join in on a discussion about this film, please go to the forum here: Revenge of the Sith