Uchu Kara no Messeiji: Gaiden

Ok. So I saw Star War Episode III: Revenge of the Sith today. The short version is: yes, it’s better than The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. No, I still wouldn’t put it on the same table as the original trilogy of Star Wars films. And again, no, it doesn’t fully make up for all of George Lucas’ crimes (Jar Jar, Midichlorians, and Jake Llyod to name only three) committed in the prior films.

By now, anyone who’s seen the prequels knows what to expect stylistically. Video game-ready action sequences, horrible dialogue and high school movie acting, and lots of childish and distracting CGI creatures filling up shots where they’re not actually needed.

The difference is that Revenge of the Sith gets to contain the only scene that audiences ever really wanted to see from a Star Wars film set in the Old Republic: the light saber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan.

Unlike the previous prequels, which now seem to have been enormous wastes of time by setting up plotlines that don’t go anywhere (for instance, Boba Fett? Sifo Dias? No mention of them made here) the movie is actually going somewhere this time. And it’s to the Dark Side, thank goodness.

The Film opens big with the now-requisite space battle. Nothing you haven’t seen before in a Star Wars film, except that the staging, like most of the effects work, is easier on the eye being much less overwrought than the Pod Race or the Chase on Courosant (AKA whatever), from the previous films.

Next, we’re back to prequel hell, with a ton of exposition heavy dialogue, and characters commuting from one planet to the next. Since anyone with half a brain already knows what the main characters are still totally clueless about (Palpatine = Sidious), this section is not exactly a joy to behold especially with all the political parallels George tries to build between the making of his Empire via. a false war, and the one America is currently engaged in (I’ll leave it to Machiyama to develop this line of thought).

Just when you’re about to write the whole thing off, act three, which sees the final pieces of Senator Palpatine’s plan fitting into place, begins to lift off. Bodies start piling up impressively, buildings start to burn 9/11 style, and the pace of the film finally begins to resemble a “faster, more intense” Star Wars film.

For all the talk of this being a “dark” film, rated PG-13 here in America, it’s really just back in touch with the level of what was shown in the 1977 original, where Obi-Wan casually hacked off aliens’ arms in the cantina, Luke stumbles across the BBQ remains of his foster parents, and Jawa bodies were strewn about the Dune Sea like rag dolls.

Lucas ignores classical dramatic structure and goes for a forth act plus an epilogue. We get the lightsaber battle between the two friends and the birth of Vader. While the staging of the duel itself may not be as amazing as you’d hoped for after all those years of reading Starlog and collecting action figures, what matters is that what’s taking place on screen contains actual drama, for the first time since Return of the Jedi (never mind the Ewoks).

What it still lacks is suspense. There isn’t a thing in this movie that fans and causal audiences will not see coming a mile away. Surprise, that burnt hunk of meat becomes Darth Vader. A pair of twins are born. It’s a bit like watching an old Wrestling match or a World War II documentary about a battle long after you know the score. But that’s the danger of mucking around and making prequels, I guess.

The last bit of business involves various desperate acts of trying to link *everything* up to the original trilogy. It seems like the only thing we are spared is Yoda trying to find an apartment on Dagobah and Dengar buying his first bandages. But it’s not like Lucas is going to go out with anything resembling subtlety.

And neither am I. Star Wars has been great. Star Wars has sucked balls. Now, the hit to miss ratio has been restored to the point where I think most people will be happy.

Unless they’re especially fond of Wookies. I find the lack of them, especially with all the pre-release buildup, disturbing.

Comments

[Carl Horn]

Not wishing to scar perfectly good childhood memories (and lacking a burning curiosity as to what Darth Vader had been like as a tow-headed young rascal), I never did see Episodes I and II. It's a little ironic, considering my current job, but perhaps I am the control. How did things go down at Other Cinema?

[Daniel Zelter]

Oh well. There's still Indy 4...

[Kojiro Abe]

I have two questions.

Firstly, is General Greivous awesome or is his character a letdown?

Secondly, is Anakin's transformation to Vader as disturbing as it looks? From the pictures I've seen, especially the one of his charred husk being poked and prodded by droids, it looks like a fucking Clive Barker film in space.

[Patrick3]

Abe-chan,

*Spoilers*

Grevious is just another droid in a set of prequels already overstuffed with them...until the light saber duel, where he's fairly awesome in action.

Anakin's transformation is pretty graphic, but the camera doesn't linger like Barker would. I saw the movie digitally projected and it looked like they had done so much last-min tinkering with this scene that it nearly looked like a fan film. I'm already hearing that there will be differences between the digital versions and the film prints. Maybe this scene is one that's going to play different.

[Kojiro Abe]

There was a scene showing Yoda landing on Dagobah, by the way, that was cut from the finished film.