After seeing Episode III I'm left wondering...where's the MAGIC???

Rating: 5/10 (27 August 2005)

About 20 years ago, the original Star Wars trilogy had riveted me to the Movie screens like no other Sci-Fi series ever did, and in my mind the Return of the Jedi was really the conclusive chapter of this wonderful space epic. Then when I heard that Lucas was working on three more prequels I welcomed the news with a mixture of skepticism and anticipation, because of the sheer fact that the merry band of original characters such as Solo, Luke, Leia wouldn't be acting anymore and that alone was already a major letdown for me. I think it's important to point out that people who have been exposed to the Star Wars universe in their childhood, developed this special sense of empathy for these "heroes" which could not be redeemed that easily by introducing an entirely new set of actors.
Then when I finally saw the first and the second prequels, I almost couldn't believe what Lucas had done! He had completely destroyed the myth and the magic of Star Wars!!! The whole filming, staging, storyboarding and acting (if that still deserves to be called that way!) had been completely wiped out by computer graphics, making the whole thing resemble a video game. There were new characters sure enough, but how could you ever cope with cartoon-like clowns such as Jar-Jar Binks? Was this really Star Wars or a merely futuristic version of the Muppet Show? I had been so disgusted by the first two prequels that I had resolved to abhor everything that had to do with George Lucas and his "fabled" ILM studios, until Return of the Sith was released and then I told myself come on, this is THE MOST IMPORTANT episode, the one where Anakin turns into Darth Vader, the epitome of Evil...it's not only the struggle between Good and Evil; it should have been much more than that, it's as if Anakin had been deceived and signed a pact with the Devil, just as Goethe's Dr. Faust who offers his soul to Mephisto (well here this role is played by Palpatine).
So after seeing it I have mixed emotions; and even though in my opinion there is still a prevalence of bad things over good things, this one is probably the best out of the three prequels. The story (even though much of it was already known and rather easy to anticipate) could have really been great and all the ingredients were there to make this the best Star Wars movie ever, but once again Lucas confused serious film-making with video-gaming, and topped it off with unconvincing actors blurting out incredible dialogues. First of all, forget about the first 30 or so minutes of the movie which seem to come straight out of a Playstation or Xbox game, and which will probably give you something close to an epileptic seizure due to the frenzy and speed of the battles. Second, with the exception of Ewan McGregor, Ian Mc Diarmid, and poor Natalie Portman (really I do pity her because she's actually a great actress and didn't deserve to be diminished like that!), the acting was non-existent. The worst performer was, incidentally enough, Haydn Christensen who was supposed to portray Anakin Skywalker in his tragic descent into total darkness by joining the Emperor and the Sith. What was supposed to be a tremendous transformation of a good Jedi into an evil servant of the Sith happened so quickly and easily that it seemed somebody had just flipped a switch and bang Anakin's gone and we suddenly have Darth Vader. To be honest Christensen had never appeared as a credible enough Anakin to me; he was more of a wimpy, petulant and arrogant brat trying to impress the Jedi order, and yet never really earning a Master's title. Maybe what really saved him was to turn into Darth Vader! Really, a big thank you to Darth Sidious for this, who rallied him to his Cause, otherwise I don't even dare to imagine a Star Wars without a Vader!!!
As far as the CGI and special FXs are concerned, I'm afraid that they almost "killed" the Magic that was part of the Star Wars universe. Nothing looks real in the movie; everything has this artificial and video game-like touch to it, and no matter how good the rendering techniques might be, they still don't fool the human eye. Sorry ILM folks it was a nice show-off but nothing compared to the AT-ATs walkers in the battle of Hoth!!! One character that really did not fit with the rest of the acting crew was Yoda! All right, you can use CGI for robots, spaceships, and well...even the stormtroopers, but not for poor little Yoda. In The Empire Strikes Back he was absolutely stunning and you could really feel the expressions on his face, but with CGI he looks almost like a bad copy of the Gollum monster from Lord of the Rings. To be really honest, I cannot stand the Star Wars prequels and wish Lucas had never ever produced them. However there was still a lot of cash to be done on the new movies and especially the "merchandising" (remember that glorious Mel Brooks parody "Spaceballs"?), and for Lucas and the ILM crew this was THE goldmine, and they simply looted it indiscriminately. But now it's too late , the harm has been done and well...the Magic is gone once and for all!