Written & Directed by George Lucas
“Every single Jedi, including your friend Obi-Wan, is now an enemy of the Republic. Do what must be done.”
This is not the way it should have been. This is not the movie we waited so long to see.
I read the novelization prior to the film’s release. The story was rich, the character insights were deep and evocative, and the book was full of multi-layered scenes that laid all the requisite pipe for the original Star Wars trilogy. I figured that, if the movie was even HALF as decent as the novelization, we were in for something special.
Instead, the movie was an exercise in frustration and disappointment.
Frustration because so many key scenes and key characters were given back stories and foundations that should have provided the audience with compelling scenes and visceral action: we had the growing inner turmoil of Anakin Skywalker; the building fear of Padme, both for Anakin and the state of the Republic; the sinking talons of Chancellor Palpatine, and a Jedi order at a cross roads. All of this on its own would have made for excellent storytelling.
Instead, we get boring — and short! — exposition, lightning quick scenes that lack any substance, and surface gloss.
We get characters who are important to the Star Wars saga — Bail Organa, Count Dooku, Chewbacca, Mon Motha — either reduced to disposable plot devices, chauffers, or dropped altogether.
We get scenes that are vastly important — the fall of Anakin to the Sith, the massacre at the Jedi temple, Padme’s death — but treated so superficially, that they don’t make an impact, in spite of the stirring music, or the presumptuous (preposterous?) direction.
The disappointment comes from all the good in this movie: the Anakin/Obi-wan & Yoda/Palpatine battles; the creation of Darth Vader; the performance of Ian McDiarmid as Sidious, the stunning visuals… They’re all there to be enjoyed — sometimes in one continuous burst, as in the last 25 minutes — but they’re all wrapped up in layers of dull, tedious, and threadbare story machinations.
All of these problems I blame squarely on George Lucas.
Lucas fashioned a story that was sophisticated, epic, and operatic in scope. Unfortunately, HE HIMSELF is NOT sophisticated enough to fulfill the story’s potential. His direction is static, pedestrian, and sometimes just plain WRONG! The scene on the Star Destroyer bridge at the end, showing the construction of the Death Star from Episode IV, is WASTED! No pan to a grand reveal, no lingering on its evil profile…it’s simply in the background of a window!
Lucas is also a writer who doesn’t seem to grasp character development. It’s all a comic strip to him, and in his screenplay for Revenge of the Sith, as well as Phantom Menace (I) and Attack of the Clones (II), people simply say and act the way they do because that’s how he wrote it on the page, and that’s how it’s to be done!
From what I see in Episode III, there is none of the warmth and charm present in his ingenious, twenty-five-year-old screenplay for A New Hope (IV), none of the melding of classy sci-fi with youthful Hollywood zeal that was The Empire Strikes Back (V) partnership of Leigh Brackett & Lawrence Kasdan, and none of the populist neatness of Kasdan’s & Lucas’ Return of the Jedi (VI) collaboration.
That I’m writing all this is already an indication that Revenge of the Sith is heads above its sister prequels in terms of quality…but that’s akin to saying that it’s the least ugly out of a brood of ugly ducklings. This is NOT what we were supposed to have as a tie up to the Star Wars saga. Its heart is scattered on the cutting room floor, and its soul was edited out of Lucas’ imagination a long time ago.
Lucas has given us a great story. Unfortunately, someone else SHOULD have written it. Someone else SHOULD have directed it.
I could rant and rave, but I’m too bewildered by the experience. I plan to see it a few more times, to see how it grows on me. But as it stands right now, it’s a big, empty nothing of a film. It makes me want to hug my original series DVDs and not let go…because they may come into contact with this lesser achievement that masquerades as being its natural predecessor.
The force is definitely not with us.
5
