Graphically spectacular, a few good moments, but this film brings only closure, not insight or even entertainment

Rating: 2/10 (6 November 2005)

To see the original Star Wars as a child was to step into a science fantasy world of white knights, black baddies, strange creatures, androids & robots, heroes, princesses who are also heroes, cool spaceships, lots of fire-fights, and not least, a kind of magic. However Revenge of the Sith might more accurately be named Return of the Sh-it.
The film is literally the ultimate disappointment because despite the resources of a superb design and effects team, and some acceptable acting from the leads, Lucas himself has not matured as a director/scriptwriter; if anything, he's regressed, by failing to give us any believable dialogue and motivations, or characters whose personalities are anything other than one-dimensional.
The key example of this is the character of Anakin/Vader himself, who while apparently propelled into evil by first a failure to be recognised as a Jedi Master and then critically by the choice to sacrifice all other considerations to save Padmé, is quite prepared to kill her instantly when he believes she has betrayed him, without a moment's thought or pain.
The film makes minimal use of metaphor; the projection of the battle between Yoda and Palpatine/Sidious into the senate chamber was one weak example, but appeared to be done more for the opportunity to toss large black things around than anything else). And the synchrony of the births of Luke & Leia with the final dark apotheosis of Anakin to Vader-hood was rather too inevitable to be considered a conscious creative act on Lucas' part. Sub-plots? Nope, they might confuse the 6 year olds.
There is a token effort at depth when Kenobi says "only the Sith deal in absolutes" during the battle with Anakin, but this was a missed opportunity to reflect that even the Jedi are capable of mistakes. And for that very battle, what possessed Lucas to name the volcanic hell planet "Mustafa", which is a popular name among those of Islaamic faith? The other flaws of the film were established already in Phantom Menace; Padme/Portman was not as gritty or complex as Leia/Fischer, and most significantly, there was no one who portrayed emotions other than anger, love or serious thoughtfulness - in short, there was no replacement for Han Solo.
Although the spaceship scenes have become richer, there were no fresh ideas to liven up the lightsabre scenes, just a little jumping around.
Thankfully the series is now over and fans of the original series who wanted to see more of the best parts of "Star Wars" and "Empire Strikes Back" now know that this is not to be, and there is some closure in that.
Further, Joss Whedon knows enough to bring a little of the emotive dimension of soap opera into his (doubtless just beginning) space opera "Serenity"/"FireFly". But there is still room for a director who can create enough splash and popcorn heroism to appeal to kids while providing older scifi fans with a reason or two to watch scifi movies.