The Star Wars moment we've all been waiting for – the one that almost single-handedly validates Episode III, and that helps alleviate at least some of the pain of the previous two episodes – occurs close to the end of George Lucas' nearly 2 1/2 hour opus.
Pretty boy Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), having been horribly mutilated and left for dead in a duel with his former mentor, is laid out on an operating table being surgically altered into the ominously familiar shape of that part man, part machine entity known as Darth Vader. It's the final pay-off of a long, agonizing transformation of spirit, manifested here through the flesh, and Episode III drives the point home by juxtaposing it with another, equally difficult delivery happening at that exact instant on a planet far away. As Anakin undergoes his final transformation, the movie deftly cuts away to the birth of his children, Luke and Leia, the twin siblings who will become the iconic Vader's nemeses as well as the dominant figures in the rest of Lucas' famous franchise.
It's not exactly subtle, this dual birthing montage, but then again, what in the Star Wars mythology is? Lucas' genius, if we can still call it that, has always been his ability to tap into age-old myths and repackage them into compact and highly digestible pop parcels, something that this one sequence does in spades. Karma, destiny and all those ancient heroic journeys of which Joseph Campbell was so fond – legends that once upon a time coursed through the Star Wars movies – reverberate anew here, at least for a few moments.
Lucas sets up the sequence with one of the longest, most elaborate build-ups in movie history – a full hour of epic destruction, bloodshed and anguish that reaches Wagnerian proportions and more than earns the movie its much-publicized PG-13 rating. But, truth be told, the director has been inching towards this moment ever since that very first Star Wars movie in 1977. It's been a long time coming, with lots of annoying and pointless detours in between – that would be pretty much all of Episodes I and II – but fans of the series are likely to be delighted with how it all winds up.
Although it's technically the middle installment of the series, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith is where all the chickens come home to roost. Emotionally and plot-wise, this is the lynchpin for the entire series, and the movie is surprisingly effective at tying together the frenetic digital doodlings of the 21st century Star Wars movies with the richer narratives that captured the popular imagination a quarter century ago. There's a satisfying sense of both continuity and closure here, and although it's far from a great film (despite the legions of fanboys and fangirls who'll soon be proclaiming it a masterpiece simply because it wasn't the gilded turd they were anticipating), Episode III is certainly a more cohesive and, in its way, more complex film than anyone could have expected.
There's no secret to what happens here – the Republic mutates into the tyrannical Galactic Empire, the valiant Jedi Knights are eclipsed, and Anakin succumbs to the Dark Side and becomes Vader – so the movie's ability to convincingly demonstrate just how these dominoes fall into place is crucial. To cut right to the chase, Lucas gets it mostly right, and if there is sometimes less suspense here than we might like, it's compensated for by the way the movie grooves on the tragic inevitability of its events, infusing its tale with an intensity that's nearly operatic.
Anakin does a lot of brooding and staring off into various distances in this one, a lot of wrestling with demons and mulling over terrible doubts and premonitions. Despite some Zen-like advice to let go of what he fears losing, Anakin just gets angrier and more paranoid, obsessing on the world's failings, taking its slings and arrows as personal affronts, and flashing a very un-Zen-like ego that leads to his eventual undoing and terrible rebirth.
There's also some serious court intrigue complicating the mix here, murky political shadings that provide many of the characters with a tantalizing moral ambiguity as if they were players in some sort of intergalactic Godfather. When the movie's puzzle pieces finally come together, as we know they must, and Anakin is led into the seductive embrace of the Dark Side, we even get one sinister observer describing the future Vader's tragic leap of faith as simply taking a "larger view of The Force."
Still, this is a Star Wars movie, after all, not Shakespeare or even Coppola (although Anakin is a champion brooder right up there with Hamlet and Michael Corleone), and there are plenty of things in Episode III to make you go "Huh?" Lucas remains an erratic director with an annoying tendency to cram in something for everyone, and Episode III suffers from serious inconsistencies of tone.
The movie frequently undercuts its quieter, more emotionally evocative scenes by rushing too quickly into the next spectacularly orchestrated, special effects-laden space battle (where it often barely matters who's chasing who), complete with dumb, juvenile humor that should appeal directly to those same pre-teens that Lucas, master of reverse psychology, is warning away from his film.
As for Hayden Christensen's acting, it has improved only slightly and, despite the reported enlisting of a respected ghost writer or two, there is still an awful lot of bad dialogue delivered with embarrassingly bombastic, sub-soap-opera gusto. Sample lines include, "I don't know you any more," "What have I done?!" and that ever popular, all-purpose expression of anguish, "Noooooooooo!"
But then Episode III moves on to another, tastier bit of business and all is forgiven. Lucas even gets in a few shots at our current quagmire in Iraq, with much ado being made about unpopular, inglorious wars and about how even the best-intentioned governments fall when they fail to listen. And don't even get me started on the subtext of that soon-to-be-notorious scene featuring Yoda getting electronically prodded. Plans are no doubt already in place for a line of T-Shirts featuring the little green guy's head transplanted over the infamous image of that hooded victim at Abu Ghraib, and I'll be first in line to buy one.
lance.goldenberg@weeklyplanet.com
This article appears in May 18-24, 2005.