“Star Wars Episode III — Revenge of the Sith”

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Anx­ious­ly wait­ing in line for the film, won­der­ing what to say to the 100 or so peo­ple behind me when Angela final­ly shows up after work. (Did­n’t mat­ter in the end, as she did­n’t get there until after I sat down.) I was clutch­ing my tick­ets with the kind of glee reserved for a 4 year old on his birth­day. Hell, it was my birth­day: the final Star Wars film was here and I was in the line to see it; the pin­na­cle of geek highs.

And I was­n’t let down.

The final Star Wars film is a sol­id piece of work. There aren’t real­ly any sur­pris­es here: you know where it begins and you know how it ends. The rest is 2–1/2 hours of intense light saber bat­tles and anguish (on the part of Anakin, not me). This final film has more of an artis­tic flair than pre­vi­ous films. Sure, the cheesy ser­i­al film scene change effects are still there and Lucas isn’t known for his abil­i­ty to bring out Oscar-wor­thy performances.

How­ev­er, there are some scenes that are much more moody or com­posed than any of the pre­vi­ous install­ments. Case in point (and I’m not spoil­ing any plot here): The scene where Anakin final­ly is put into “the mask.” The screen is filled with the pro­file of Vader’s mask as Anakin lies prone and motion­less. Dead silence in which you can hear the col­lec­tive mouths open­ing at the dra­ma. Here is a bril­liant­ly lit, motion­less scene of one of the great­est icons of the 20th cen­tu­ry. And then, in the silence you hear the famil­iar click­ing and breath­ing of Vader’s res­pi­ra­tor. For all the puns, humor­ous sketch­es, and par­o­dies made in the past 28 years, you can still feel the immense grav­i­ty of this scene. See­ing the mask is the line bind­ing back on itself to form a per­fect cir­cle. You know exact­ly where you are know.

There were a few things I had expect­ed to see that weren’t there. While the Mil­len­ni­um Fal­con can be seen briefly near the begin­ning of the film, it’s not real­ly involved in the sto­ry like I would have imag­ined (let along a men­tion of what the Kessel run is, for you fan-boys and girls). I expect­ed to see more of the for­ma­tion of the rebel alliance, as well. Last­ly, as cliché as it has become in my life­time, I real­ly want­ed to see more of Darth Vad­er in the black mask. Not in some sort of fan-boy desire to see more Sith lords, but because I felt almost as if it was my her­itage as a geek-child-of-the-sev­en­ties to see him. I’d wait­ed all my life to get here and I deserved all the time I want­ed to spend with him, sto­ry be damned.

Lucas does a fine job at fill­ing in that gap between two known points. He pro­vides us with a sense that this is the way it had to hap­pen; that Darth Vad­er is less of a über-vil­lain, and more of a sto­ry. Rather than using the Dis­ney-esque vil­lains-are-bad and heros-are-good mod­el, Lucas also allows each of the char­ac­ters to have moti­va­tions, doubts, and human involve­ment. Most impres­sive is Sen­a­tor Pal­pa­tine. You get a sense that while he is no doubt evil and cor­rupt, he real­ly forms a bond with Anakin. Sure, he only wants Anakin becuase he real­izes that the young Jedi is the strongest of them all and easy to manip­u­late, but he no less seems to look out for the boy.

There was no applause after the film. I did­n’t applaud, not because I did­n’t like the film or enjoy myself, but because I was gen­er­al­ly depressed. The sto­ry ends on a stun­ning­ly sober note and as the lights came back up, I real­ized that this was it. Applaud­ing would just be more nails being dri­ven into the cof­fin. There’s no point in my rec­om­mend­ing this film. If you know me and read this, you’ll go see it. Not because I told you to, but because it’s your her­itage as well. You’ve earned the right to see Darth Vad­er, too.