Anticlimactic ...but still worth the wait

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 2005)

Revenge of The Sith had the potential to be the greatest of both trilogies, but in the end I was left wanting. Understand that I am an avid fan in my late 30's, and I am not given to "prequel bashing". In fact, I believe that GL accomplished his mission if one considers the greater context of all six movies. With that said, I felt the most troubling aspects of ROTS involved the coherency and integrity of the plot itself. First, I had a very hard time with the "brotherhood" that was supposed to be felt between Obi Wan and Anakin. Friendly banter aside, the warmness resonated from these "best friends" was barely above tepid -- less brothers but more like two co-laborers who've worked too long together. Moreover, all of the developing relationships/plots seem to be merely a contrivance to move the movie along to the legendary climax. Anakin and Padme's deepening love, Mace Windu's sudden distrust of Anakin, Palpatine's betrayal of Dooku, a certain "change of heart" by a principal character -- it just rings false. It's not so much that there is great dissonance... there just seems to be an artificial consonance of the elements...put together like polyester. Also, the movie seems to be less storyline and more a collage of scenes and subplots -- much of which is introduced and processed in contracted fashion. It is as if GL filmed this great film, and then removed any contextual dialogue or involvement to save room for the "action scenes". Sadly, the greatest tragedy of this movie is that you are relegated to that of passive observer as you are kept at an emotional distance. Conspicuously lacking are the qualities of endearment we loved in Han/Leia/Luke. And with that, for whom can you root for in the end? Instead of this being a uniquely engaging experience, what's left is a visually stunning mosaic. However, like I said I am an old salt from the "Old School" of Star Wars and I believe that the simple participation in such an event gives credence to my anticipation and my ultimately anticlimactic experience. In short, with all of its flaws Â– it was still worth it.