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STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH Send This Review to a Friend
What more can be said about the “Star Wars” phenomenon? Some have always been hung up on the story line, but what the series has always really been about is special effects. And once again writer-director George Lucas piles them on, only more so.
His latest, “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” delivers a sophisticated onslaught of dazzling visuals heightened with technology and imagination. The film is like a giant computer game, and Lucas obviously revels in what can now be done on screen.
It is also primarily an action expedition, which is not a bad thing. For whenever acting is required, the film is wooden and tiresome. The action can also grow tiresome—too much of a good thing. But at least one can marvel at the weaponry, the spaceships, the oddball figures and the seemingly endless explosions.
Lucas is after more—wrapping up the galactic tale “a time long ago, in a galaxy far away…” as the introduction goes. The story comes full circle, as we learn what led to what, supposedly bringing an end to Lucas’s tour de force that revolutionized special effects on screen. Of course, some of the favorites are back, Yoda, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca, all of whom have been more interesting and amusing than the conventional human contingent.
Natalie Portman is generally a fine actress, but her comic-strip characterization of Padmé is ludicrously stiff, and the same can be said for Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. Ewan McGregor is somewhat better as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
But let’s face it. If you are caught up in the tale Lucas has been spinning, you are on the wave length and none of the fine points matter. If you are not, there are those fantastic effects fine-tuned to the age in which virtually anything can be done on screen through technology that provides a blazing sound and light show peppered with eye-popping imagery. In that respect, Lucas has done it again and even more spectacularly. A 20th Century Fox release.
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