Great space opera with heart, soul and a glorious sense of wonder

Rating: 8/10 (1 June 2005)

Once obsessed by STAR WARS IV and deflated by the last two prequels, I approached REVENGE OF THE SITH with caution.
Clearly, George Lucas approached the film with caution, too, and also applied a little care because it is the most cohesive installment since STAR WARS IV.
Annakin Skywalker is seduced by the Dark Side in this outing and becomes Darth Vader. His journey is intelligently constructed, his fall from grace less obvious than one might expect. Lucas makes it clear that Annakin, in one sense, was duped into swapping sides. He didn't embrace the Darth of his soul with relish or enthusiasm. Though a prime Sith candidate, he was also the victim of clever manipulation.
This is a more considered and mature entry that draws on the series' enormous history and viewer familiarity. As we have seen the future, the fight sequences with Yoda and Obi-Wan lack the suspense a life or death struggle provides. Even the final sabre duel between Obi_Wan and Annakin (now Vader) has an inevitability to it that takes something away.
Still, this is a film you watch not for what happens, but for how it happens. Lucas's universe is richly realized and he ties up loose ends rather neatly. Because so little is overexplained, the film never feels heavy or long-winded.
The fight sequences (on land and in space), though impressive, lack freshness. How many more ships can we see destroyed? How many more light sabre duels can we endure? This is not a fault of the filmmakers, it is an inevitable consequence of us, as an audience, being spoilt.
Though I enjoyed the set pieces, I found the final action piece closer to a stupid video game than the extension of a intriguing narrative. The section where Annakin and Obi-Wan fight it out with sabres while they ride scooter-like sleds across a lake of larva was plain unbelievable and comic book-ish in the extreme.
REVENGE OF THE SITH has a heart, a soul and a beautiful sense of wonder and possibility, and I liked it very much because of that.