Star Wars Let Down

Rating: 5/10 (12 June 2006)

The first 3 Star Wars movies (Episodes 4,5 and 6) were of a different era, and remain great films. The latter episodes (Episodes 1, 2 and 3) seem to have gone steadily downhill, culminating in this last, disappointing installment. Lucas seems to have gone back to the drawing board years later, and just couldn't recapture the magic of his earlier films. I have continuously felt that the choice of Hayden Christensen in the pivotal role of Anarkin Skywalker/Darth Vader was a critical casting mistake. He was just too lightweight to carry that role. His acting is consistently wooden, and he never, ever made me feel he could be larger-than-life, heroic or ... Darth Vader. He seems petulant and immature throughout, and suffered next to better actors, especially Natalie Portman in their unbelievable romance. Almost all of their love affair seemed corny,stiff and embarrassing to me, never natural or magical. Often, the script-writing just seemed to fail the movie ... the dialog often felt flat and meaningless. Somehow, it just didn't 'click'. There were times when I felt that Lucas was trying too hard to cram all the plot elements in, to sew up everything. Most certainly this and the latter movies were overloaded with special effects to a fault. Naturally, there have been great strides in special effects since the earlier moves, but this isn't an issue of using better effects, but rather of over-using them; just overwhelming the plots and actors with too much going on, especially the battles. While some are great to watch, the overall effect is that they dwarf the human conflicts and smaller battles, kind of grinding down everything in their wake. After a while, the light saber duels were just redundant and tedious. I kind of liked Episode 1, although I think too much time was spent on the little boy and his big race. Episodes 2 and this, 3, were serious let-downs, as all of my comments above took serious hold. I'm kind of sorry for this, and almost wish Lucas could do it again better. As it is, we have to live with what he had created. Fact is that sequels rarely live up to the originals. The first three films were really one long one, and this follow-up of the last three films just couldn't maintain. Good eye candy, but they leave one feeling let down, not jubilant or inspired. I suspect that less discriminating viewers will find less fault with the latter films, but I think they are bound to rate second-best to the originals.