"Sith Happens" (possible spoilers)

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2005)

I went in to this expecting a pile of Sith. What I got was a tour de Force. Not bad.
George Lucas must have felt he needed to atone for the first two films in his Star Wars prequel trilogy with "Revenge of the Sith". All right George, you can get off your knees now.
Films that can be riddled with major faults (downright awful dialogue, bad acting, disconnected plot) and yet be called enjoyable are rare. "Sith" is just such a film. However, I believe that a moviegoer would need to be familiar with (and care about) the trials and trappings of the other five Star Wars films for "Sith" to work. I was in the theater next to a woman whoshock of all shockshad never before seen any of the Star Wars adventures. She was as lost as a Tauntaun on Tatooinebut I'm getting ahead of myself.
"Sith" is the pivotal film in which all the big questions raised in the original Star Wars movies are supposed to be answered. How does Luke Skywalker's father become Darth Vader? How are the twins Luke and Leia born and eventually separated? What was Obi Wan Kenobi up to that gave him credibility as a military leader? How did Jedi master Yoda end up in the slimy mudhole of Dagobah? The film delivers answers, some of them satisfying, others disappointing. How does Leia have any memory of her mother ("Return of the Jedi") if Padme Amidala died in childbirth? She must have been a precocious newborn.
But enough of the minutiae. What we're all supposed to be paying close attention to is Anakin Skywalker's tortured descent into the mires of the Dark Side. Hey, we've all seen it coming. He was a boastful and prideful child (Episode I), a bit of a renegade as a Jedi and completely capable of slaughter (Episode II), not to mention willing to defy his Jedi vows for emotion and love (also Episode II). In "Sith", marriage to Padme has made him creepier and more cynical (or maybe it's for some other reasonI like that one). The Jedi Temple is not the Happy Galaxy Playtime Academy it may once have been. Of course, war will do that. The praise and affection from his mentor Obi Wan Kenobi aren't doing it for Anakin anymore. He wants something bigger, greater, and I don't mean the swelling belly of his pregnant wife. In short, Anakin has become fertile ground for the thought seeds of Chancellor Palpatine, known to his Dark Side party pals as Darth Sidious.
The audience might be moved to pity Anakin. After all, he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and both the Sith and the Jedi seem to be using him as a pawn. If Palpatine is offering the kind of respect and power the Jedi seem to be denying him, is it any wonder that Anakin warms up to the side that seems to appreciate his abilities? In my view, Anakin doesn't embrace evil. Evil embraces Anakin, and he doesn't have the mental faculties to fight free.
This is what makes "Sith" a good film. We don't suddenly start to hate Anakin. We're shown how he's turned and twisted and maybe we even sympathize. This also shows us the importance of our own minds and of not bending to outside influences that appeal to our more base and primal feelings.