AS MY colleague James Christopher has already noted in these pages, nostalgia is a force that can rival that of any Jedi Knight. Even though the previous two prequels in George Lucas’s latest Star Wars trilogy were, frankly, a bit duff, the fever of anticipation that surrounds Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith is as keen as ever. One of the main problems with the later films is that Lucas seems to have bought in to the Star Wars mythology wholesale. The films, all scored by John Williams take themselves very, very seriously, at the expense of any humour that the franchise once might have had.
 
This episode had the potential for some real human drama. Revenge of the Sith is the one in which the headstrong, pretty Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) forsakes the Jedi for the dark side. How-ever, if Anakin is thrown on to the horns of a moral dilemma, we never really get to see it.

In fact, the Force may be strong in this one, but unfortunately his light sabre seems to be burning at a particularly low wattage. Anakin seems very suggestible and, to be honest, a bit thick. Not the material you would expect in a future Dark Lord of the Sith. Elsewhere the usual problems plague the movie. As with Episodes One and Two, Lucas pulls out the stops on the dazzling special effects, but gives his cast very little to work with in terms of dialogue. The backdrops to the action are so busy, and so irrelevant to what the actors are doing — a river of volcanic lava belching toxic gases provides the location for one duel — that they become effectively meaningless.

The light-sabre duels themselves bring their own set of problems, chiefly that after you have seen one or two, they get rather boring no matter how much molten lava you chuck around. Lucas includes so much of this action that by the time we get to the most important — Anakin versus his former mentor Obi-Wan — you just wish they would hurry up and get it over with.

That leads me to the final problem with this third episode. Since anyone with even a passing familiarity with the Star Wars films knows which characters play a part in the original Star Wars, which Revenge of the Sith now heads towards, there’s little suspense in most of the pivotal confrontations.

However much you hope, in the battle between Darth Sidious and Yoda, that the irritating little green know-it-all gets his ears sliced off, you know it won’t happen.

Star Wars: the global views

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“How can you stand in front of exploding star fleets and sound as if you’re talking on a cell phone in Starbucks?”

New York Times
“Revenge of the Sith is about how a republic dismantles its own democratic principles, about how a Manichean ideology undermines the rational exercise of power.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany
“Whoever understands the downfall of Weimar Germany or the history of present day North America will easily find their way through Episode III.”

Agence France-Presse
“A galactic jab to US president George W. Bush”

Canadian Press
“The finale is over-stuffed with plot resolution in what seems a desperate race to ensure it effectively ties up all hanging threads.”

Libération, France
“Lucas imposes the strange feeling that the hero of the galaxy really had no choice: in his place we too would have fallen to the dark side.”

Manifest, Germany
“Unfortunately the love story is once again a complete brake on an otherwise pacy show . . . Lucas should pick up some Shakespeare instead of a technical manual.”

Newsweek
“Lucas has stayed true to his vision, and that vision has changed the cultural landscape irrevocably.”

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