George Lucas is a god among directors, who unfortunately sullied his reputation when he decided to finally revisit the series that turned him into what he is.
Let’s face it, it’s hard to go home again, and Lucas proved this when he released the abysmal “”Episode I: The Phantom Menace.”” I’ll admit that I’m one of the few people who really liked Episode II so I won’t jump on that hate bandwagon. There’s a lot to like if you can ignore the wooden acting of Hayden Christensen. So now here we are a few years later, finally on the eve of the very last Star Wars movie. I read the Episode III novel before I saw this, based on the novel and all the clips that I watched I was ready to love this thing from beginning to end. Much like Anakin (Hayden Christensen) I found myself getting sucked into the dark side of marketing hype. I saw those cool looking light-sabers at Borders, and seriously considered shelling out a 100 clams for it. This despite the fact that I’ve never been a huge fan of the franchise. I always found chunks of each film unwatchable (Tatooie in IV, Yoda in V, Ewoks in VI, Christensen in II) – although Phantom Menace is unwatchable from beginning to end. Episode III begins with a much ballyhooed and talked about space battle where Anakin and Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) are fighting the Separatist Army who just kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). The opening sequence looks stunning – it’s clean and technically impressive but feels hollow. To add to this feeling of hollowness is the “”playful”” banter between Obi and Anakin. The dialogue is pitiful, forced, and delivered so woodenly that it’s hard to pay attention to anything other than how truly awful it was. When they land they encounter General Grievous a weird looking cyborg robot who is one of the cheesiest and fake looking CGI-effects in the history of film, not only does he look incredibly fake and non-threatening but the voice acting by Matthew Wood (appropriate last name) is the worst that I’ve ever heard. It was this dry and wheezing. Grievous is supposed to be the precurser to the technology used to create Vader. What’s worse is, Grievous is one of those monologue/ing villains who can’t SHUT UP!Anakin’s path to the dark side begins when he encounters Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), and at the urging of Palpatine chops his head off. When he returns home he finds out that Padme (Natalie Portman) is pregnant. At no time do you feel any chemistry from Christensen and Portman. She announces her pregnancy and Christensen shows absolutely no emotion, now I understand that’s sort of the point, Jedi are not allowed to be married, much less have kids – which begs the question – where the heck do all the Jedi come from? He starts to have dreams about Padme dying in childbirth, with a few words from Palpatine, he’s goaded into thinking that if he learns the ways of the dark side he’ll be able cheat death. The first hour of the film is all about Anakin’s slow descent into the darkside. The problem is, in order for this film to really work, the audience has to believe in the relationship between he and Padme, and it simply doesn’t work. Not once do you believe that these two are in a relationship. (Actually, at the end you do feel for Padme.) They rarely smile, or do anything that would suggest that there’s a real love connection between these two. Now that is a fault of both the actors and a poor script that gives them nothing to work with. Obviously Lucas cared more about showcasing the space battles, and Palpatine’s machinations instead of focusing his energy on the most important aspect of the story. What does work is how masterfully Palpatine plays Anakin for a sucker, slowly sowing the seeds of doubt into him about the innate righteousness of the Jedi. The Jedi Counsel is mired in internal politics, and their distrust of the Chancellor and Anakin further drives him on a dark path. You find yourself screaming at Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) to pull Anakin aside and have a heart to heart or man to man chat with him. To say “”Anakin, it is ok to be scared we will do what we can to help you.”” Instead he and the council treat Anakin like the petulant, whiny, lying brat that he is. While all of this is going on Obi is out having his final confrontation with Separatist leader Grievous and it’s meant to be cool that Grievous can wield 4 light-sabers at once, but he simply looks retarded. The Jedi hope that once they destroy Grievous Palpatine will give up his power. Of course this doesn’t happen.When Mace and several Jedi go to arrest Palpatine is where the film goes from stagnant to overdrive. Lucas throws out all that emoting garbage and goes for the jugular. Episode III becomes the film that I was patiently waiting for. The battle between Mace and Palpatine is glorious, but what’s even better is when Palpatine activates order 66, and all the Jedi are killed off. Lucas and composer John Williams brings us a 5 or 10 minute montage that is truly heartrending. This sequence is well worth the price of admission alone. We get to see Jedi on various worlds getting slaughtered by the very troops that, a few minutes before, they were leading. The sense of betrayal was palpable. After this intense sequence, we finally head into the rousing 3rd act that gives Star Wars fans everything that they’ve been waiting three films for. You want to know why C3PO doesn’t remember his masters in Star Wars? That question is answered. You want to know why the Yoda goes into hiding, that’s answered as well. But most importantly you want to see the light-saber battle to end all light-saber battles, then you’ll get it, the final fight between Obi and Anakin is absolutely, eye-popping AMAZING, all of the drama and emotion (and god forbid acting chops) are on full display here. This is why you spend your hard earned dollars, and fight the crowds to see this film. If I had one complaint about this brilliant and gorgeous sequence is that Lucas just can’t help himself, he has to junk it up by inter-cutting it with Yoda’s battle with Palpatine which is kind of cool, but it takes your focus away from the bread and butter of this film which is Obi and Anakin.Overall, I liked Episode III a lot, I just didn’t love it as much as I wanted to. Christensen and Grievous almost sink this digital ship, but it rights itself and blows through the choppy waters.Final Grade A-EM Review byMichelle Alexandria05/19/050