First I’d like to say that I liked the first two Star Wars films of the new trilogy. Unlike most critics and many movie goers, I didn’t see them and think they were awful. Jar Jar Binx did not offend me. I enjoyed watching Darth Maul and Yoda fight in the second film and tdbits of information such as how the storm troopers came to be, were great connect the dots moments to the originals for me. I didn’t expect the new series to be as good as the first because the type of magic the first three Star Wars movies created is impossible to repeat. I accepted the new movies on their own terms and in doing so could find enjoyment in them were others could not.
With that said, I can say that I was thoroughly disappointed by the last installment of Star Wars. Revenge of the Sith was simply awful. I didn’t like it at all and considering that it involved the creation of Darth Vador, by far one of the best movie villains of all time, it is hard for me to accept that such a film with great potential could go so wrong…and wrong it went.
First off there were just some story problems I couldn’t get past. For example, the Star Wars films take place many, many moons in the future yet Padme was completely clueless that she was having twins? I mean did they stop doing sonograms at some point? She had robots delivering her baby for goodness sake but there was no idea that there were two of those little suckers cooking in there?
Also the whole volcano planet thing was just a bit ridiculous. I accept the fact the objects they were flying around on would not melt but humans are still humans and unless we’ve grown a heat resistant layer of skin in the future that George Lucas forgot to mention then they should have exploded or at the very least melted flying around so close to molten lava.
Oh and the fact that the burnt, hairless, legless, armless body of Anakin Skywalker could be saved, yet once again I say, everyone was completely clueless about the fact that Padme was having twins astounds me. We can save someone who essentially looks like a worm but we can’t tell how many or the sex of a pregnant woman’s babies? Give me a break.
My other big problem with the film was that Skywalker’s dissent to the dark side happened way to fast. He was so willing to accept the word of the Chancellor over the Jedi Council, never stopped to question where those nightmares were originating and never once questioned the motives of the Chancellor or why killing a bunch of baby Jedi might seem like a bad idea. It was just “Hey, ya’ll don’t respect my powers, I want to be number one, so lets go to the dark side.” I wanted more substance then that.
The movie had its high points: Yoda fighting is always good and it was even better the second time around. Seeing Chewy was great and watching Anakin don the Darth Vador suit was great. James Earl Jones is the man and hearing his voice if only for a few seconds was worth my six dollars. I just wish the whole movie could have been as great as those select moments.