| FORCE OF HABIT : George Lucas's Revenge of the Sith [6/10] |
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| Wednesday, 11 May 2005 | |
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The most successful pop-culture myth-series of our times finally reaches its conclusion after 28 long years and six long movies - themselves only the tip of a dauntingly large universe of novels, games, toys, cartoons, theme-park rides, and George Lucas only knows what else. It's unlikely that there are many viewers for whom Revenge of the Sith will be their introduction to Star Wars, and the film doesn't waste any time on recap: "War!" bellows Lucas's trademark opening intro text-crawl - although it's never totally clear who's fighting who or why. The real focus is on Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) as he completes his journey to the Dark Side, transferring his allegiance from Jedi master Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to the evil Palpatine AKA Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid). Meanwhile, Anakin's wife Padme (Natalie Portman) is pregnant, her happiness curdling when she realises the true nature of the man she married. Though nobody's idea of a masterpiece, Revenge of the Sith is watchable fun if taken in the right spirit, and thankfully several cuts above both the last two episodes in the series, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. In fact, the picture benefits from the fact that many viewers' expectations were so decisively lowered by those disappointing episodes. Of course, non-devotees would be forgiven for reckoning the prequels have been a case of "twice bitten, thrice shy." This would be a mistake, as Sith is easily the pick of this particular trilogy. Scratch below the escapist digital surface of the picture, however, and Lucas's universe remains a distinctly odd place to visit. When Palpatine and Anakin go to the "theatre," we see them enjoying a very slow-moving kind of spectacular stage-show involving vast, empty, shimmering glass bubbles - self-referential irony, or inadvertent indictment of Lucas's own limited imagination and fondness for hollow, superficial delights? On the social/economic/political level, meanwhile, how strange it is to see a "war" movie which focuses so intently on the very upper crust of society. Of the major players, all are either military top-brass (mysteriously bronchial uber-droid General Grievous, voiced by Matthew Woods), aristocracy, nobility or royalty. Neither the Sith nor the Jedi seem to have a great deal of time for democracy, and even the Jedi "knights" are such due to genetic factors. Indeed, we have to wait until Episode IV's Han Solo for a real 'commoner' to be given any kind of prominence (even his sidekick Chewbacca, briefly introduced here is a 'Wookiee Prince,' no less.) The fate of the Jedi, meanwhile - hunted down and exterminated by Imperial forces - reminds us that they're essentially an intergalactic version of that famed 'wealthy monastic military order' the Knights Templar. Just as the Knights were brutally "terminated" by Pope Clement IV in the 14th century, the Jedi's nemesis is Emperor Palpatine - his "installation" as such is eerily (but, of course, coincidentally) reminiscent of the moment earlier this spring when Benedict XVI appeared, arms aloft, on the Vatican balcony. One thing that seems to unite Jedi and Sith, however, is their strict rule celibacy - there's no "Mrs Palpatine", "Mrs Greivous" or "Mrs Dooku" lurking in the wings - and the film implicitly endorses this oddball ideology, as pretty much all the dire events which unfold are a direct result of Anakin's secret marriage to Padme. In terms of sheer spectacular blockbusting escapism, however, Sith is actually worth your time and money - mainly because Lucas, who enjoys a creative carte blanche and access to technology without precedent in Hollywood history, seems to have really listened to the feedback from fans and critics disappointed with Menace and Clones. The dreaded Jar Jar Binks, for example, is (briefly) present but conpicuously silent this time - he's not alone in this regard, with recent Oscar nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes also reduced to a mute walk-on as the Queen of Naboo. In many of the scenes speech is kept to a merciful minimum - Lucas still can't quite get to grips with dialogue, and still isn't comfortable handling actors, especially those of the calibre of McDiarmid (who pretty much bosses the show, elevating the pulpy material whenever he's on-screen). The 'human' participants are relatively few and far between as the "cast" is swelled by endless 'droids (who all sound like working-class Americans) and cannon-fodder clones - they all sound Kiwi, as they're all played by Temuera Morrison. Lucas is on much happier and safer ground with the many noisy, CGI-dominated action sequences, although he does have an annoying fondness for cutting away in the middle of even the tensest sequences. His pacing is also somewhat off - the picture takes an age to get going, with a plethora of very short scenes that propel the cumbersome plot rather awkwardly along (all of them accompanied by John Williams' wall-to-wall score). Thankfully Lucas gets into his stride in the film's second hour, and all of the key scenes the fans have been waiting so long for - Anakin Skywalker's big duel with Kenobi and subsequent messy transformation into Darth Vader; the birth and spiriting-away of Luke and Leia - all pack the requisite punch. It seems that this time, at last, with Lucas the Force was. And now, perhaps, somebody can show the maestro his classic American Graffiti and persuade him to make proper movies again. Neil Young 11-13th May, 2005 STAR WARS EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH : [6/10] : USA 2005 : George LUCAS : 140 mins seen at Odeon cinema, The Gate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), 11th May 2005 - press show originally rated 7/10, but downgraded after further reflection, 10th Oct 2005 click here for Nobody's Goat, a cut-up rumination on Star Wars, Lucas and his home town of Modesto, California... click here for Neil's review of Revenge of the Sith written for City Life magazine of Manchester (UK) |
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