Democracy? No one's bothered...

Rating: 5/10 (24 May 2005)

Revenge of the Sith could well qualify as the longest advertisement for merchandise and spin-offs in the whole galaxy. Few people would have gone to see this being unaware of how things shape up in the next episode, and all those complaints about poor acting, banal dialogue and an unbelievably swift change of heart (and personality) by Anakin to embrace the dark side are all correct. Sith isn't a hopeless movie, though it certainly doesn't deserve to be ranked in the 250 greatest films of all times. Thanks to the generous special effects ROTS is spectacular though lacking any kind of heart or faith (and don't count the Jedi, who are so senseless, so unfeeling they can't grasp what's going on around them). Video games fans will be thrilled, while those who like me recall the thrill of George Lucas's original Episode IV in the seventies will understand that there was a time he could build tension and tell a story. Still, Episode III could have been a lot worse and in the last half-hour the film finally focuses on what we all went for: to see how Darth turned out to be so disfigured. I'm not fully convinced by it all but the easily-amused will be happy. But the point I want to make is that all the talk about democracy and empires in the movie is in fact junk. In the city scenes you see lots of craft flying sedately in orderly fashion. Neat, patient, almost mechanical. Indeed, when war threatens, buildings burn, people fall out of windows the traffic never slows, never notices. You see, here we have a film where twenty people or so passionately care about democracy (or not) yet the ordinary people in all these places go about their lives serenely and untroubled by such matters. Perhaps, innocently, this movie is the metaphor for our times. For all the talk and all the hot air and passions no one really cares about who rules.