revenge of the sith

Spoiler alert: Although I think it's pretty obvious how the characters must progress in Star Wars episode III in order to properly set up episode IV, I still want to alert readers to the explicit detail offered below. I don't want to upset your movie-going experience, so I'll understand if you want to wait until after seeing "Revenge of the Sith" yourself before reading on.

It is hard to say goodbye.

I acknowledge that the movie left me feeling rather empty, simply because it is the very last one. This is it. No more. Maybe that's the real reason I'm frustrated with it, and even feel disloyal in offering criticism. I'm a Star Wars true believer. Even though I don't go to conventions or show up at the theatre in costume -- and that this was my first midnight opening -- I still remember being seven years old, sitting in the theatre waiting for "A New Hope" to begin, and I was hooked from the beginning. The pair of trilogies comprise an impressive body of work by any standards, and as an adult I doubly appreciate the careful incorporation of the collective mythologies that define who we are -- just as these movies provide a common foundation defining our culture.

Although the theatre management had stated that they would not allow any queuing up for the midnight show prior to 11:30pm, we showed up at 10:30pm to find that they'd already started seating for the 12:01am showing (for which we had tickets) and had set up lines for the 12:40am and 12:50am shows. We grabbed the only seats we could find, which naturally landed us in the second row, where the screen feels as though it's about seven inches from your face. Not the best way to see such an action-packed flick! I knew we were in trouble from the very beginning, when we had to turn our heads from side to side just to read the opening text as it scrolled up the screen.

Ah, the movie. "Revenge of the Sith." Fantastic special effects as always. I was less than impressed with the storytelling, with too many loose ends tied up too neatly, too conveniently, too quickly, with other holes left gaping. It's not that the movie needed to be longer, but it could have used its time better. Lucas has never been stellar at dialog, so I always cut him slack there, but this was just sloppy storytelling. Not that I'm any master story-teller myself, but as I writer I do tend to expect more.

The point where the story lost me -- or when I gave up -- was when Anakin Skywalker rockets, in the space of only about twenty seconds, from "What have I done?!" to "I pledge myself to your teachings" (kneeling before the Chancellor/Emperor). Sure, he'd been heading down this path for a good while, but the transformation in his own mind was too sudden, even with the pitfalls of his own ambition and with the pressures of "you are the chosen one" having been rammed down his throat most of his life.

Granted, with "Episode II: Attack of the Clones," I had to view the movie a few times before the characters really grew on me, before I could begin to believe there might actually be something between Anakin and Padme, and that Anakin wasn't just a cardboard brat. I saw "Attack of the Clones" eight times -- eight times! -- in the theatre, when I never go to a movie more than once.

I also noticed that Padme's stage of pregnancy kept shifting: kind of pregnant, then really pregnant, then mostly pregnant, and back again. She never is large enough to produce two, fully developed (looked full-term) babies, though she is supposed to be delivering prematurely. Not to mention the "She's lost her will to live" fiasco. So she's just going to deliberately die and abandon her children? What parent makes that choice, regardless of the betrayal by the other spouse? Yet the newly risen Vader, who swore up and down that he simply couldn't live without Padme, soldiers on rather nicely even when he believes he himself killed his wife.

On her deathbed, Padme seems to pull the kids' names out of thin air. I would have appreciated knowing where those names had come from, as well as how the Chancellor came up with "Vader" for his new apprentice, even if he had been planning this transformation all along. Still, we don't know what scenes got cut in the interest of time.

In "Return of the Jedi," Leia remembers her real mother, Padme, as being very beautiful but sad. After seeing "Revenge of the Sith," I'm trying to figure out how the newborn would have been left with such a strong impression immediately after her birth, particularly since her eyes hadn't yet opened. Perhaps this is just an indication of the strength of the force with young Leia.

See, now I'm working myself into a place where I want to go see "Revenge of the Sith" again right now, even though I was convinced earlier that I didn't want to sit through another show any time soon. I just want this movie to make sense, dammit! I earnestly hope my opinion will change after additional viewings of "Revenge of the Sith," and that I can wrest greater consolation and meaning from this final installment -- not so close to the screen, though, please.