The Titanic of the Series?

Rating: 4/10 (3 June 2005)

***Possible Spoilers***
In 1977, I was in 4th Grade. Movies were marketed across the generational spectrum, with the exception of Disney. Science Fiction and Fantasy had given way to the realism of the new generation of directors from the 60s. There wasn't much to look for in movies as a kid. And then BAM! Nobody saw it coming. It was praised. It was new, bold, visionary. It was like nothing we had ever seen. In my local theatre (which took an entire year to get it due to its immense popularity), people literally were allowed to violate fire codes to accommodate the crowds who lined up over and over to see this new vision that was set to change the way movies were made, marketed, and manufactured  for better or worse. All of this happened in the summer of 1977. And George Lucas has been trying to capture that ever since, and failing miserably.
Let's face it; you can't duplicate something like that. A phenomenon is a phenomenon. And so desperate are we to see at least one of these last Star Wars films come close, we tend to lower the bar enough that anything short of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes would receive at least favorable reviews. But 1977 won't be repeated. No movie truly has, even Titanic; and it will be many years before another one does. It would be like going to a Beatles reunion with the thought that 'I'll bet it will be just like when they appeared on Ed Sullivan for the first time!' It won't. So what we are left with is really a typical movie that, when praised at all, is done so despite itself. Most favorable reviews begin with: Well, if you discard the directing, the plot, the dialogue, or the acting If you have to do that, as most do, there is no hope for greatness.
Is Sith the Titanic of the series? Is Sith even better than the first two? Basically, it is the same as Clones, except there is certain nostalgia, a smile that comes from seeing some of the familiars of the originals finally emerging. Never mind the plot holes big enough to sail a ship through that prove that while Lucas may have had a vague sketch of what he wanted years ago, he in no way had a detailed or even semi-detailed story line. Never mind some of the worst dialogue I have heard in years (I thought it was a joke when people said the line "Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo" was in the movie). Now, is it horrible? No. It is miles better than Phantom, especially the last 20 minutes, though the action sequences are so over the top that even they get a bit mundane after a while. Still, if you enjoy computer graphics or imaginative artwork, this will keep you busy. Though one thing that Lucas originally did was to make Star Wars real. Using the 'realism in movies' philosophy of the day, he applied it to his new film. I remember one assistant saying that Lucas wanted dirt and grime, because people lived in that galaxy, like we do, and they get it dirty. Brilliant. But now, with CGI, it is clean, prim, and synthetic. It looks like computer graphics, and that is something that is as bad as a string tied to the top of a flying saucer.
Is the story bad? Well, it isn't horrible, just unbelievable and dry. What made the original series work is that Lucas took science fiction and imposed classical fantasy onto it. Stark contrasts, chasms between the heroes and villains, simple good vs. simple evil. In the latest trilogy, he has taken science fiction and tried to make it modern, using the newspapers of the day to inform the story line with complex policies and questionable psycho-babble. Again, the dialogue is at best bad, and at worst nauseating. The more Lucas writes, the more we sympathize with Sir Alec Guiness's laments over the bad script. And not just the dialogue, but the lack of imagination that Lucas has developed in directing. When Vader finally steps off of the table at the end, he acts like Boris Karloff. I expected the Emperor to yell "He's Alive! Alive!" And then there was the 'Nooooo!' My wife and I were rolling in the aisles.
There was one strong point, however. Most of the actors either struggle, as poor Christensen, still failing to make his lame lines believable; or they coast, as Portman, Jackson, and other accomplished actors in the series. But McGregor genuinely seems to be trying to make something of this. In all my years of watching movies, I have never seen an actor actually work harder. It was like watching a sporting event. You just sit there and grab the arms of the chair and root for him. Go Ewan! You can do it! Deliver that line! Make it believable! I am not kidding; my wife and I left with a profound respect for him. He is a great actor, and a very talented entertainer, and hopefully we will see many years of his work to come. But for this, he acted his heart out, and deserves something for his troubles.
But now it is over. Lucas has done his thing. He can go back to what he does best, and that is behind the scenes technology. He has long forgotten the art of directing, and has forgotten that most people, even kids, eventually want something more than a 2 hour video game with occasional human interaction. Who knows, maybe someday they will re-release the original Star Wars (without the atrocious CGI effects  Han not noticing that laser blast 2 inches from his head!), and we can then and only then relive a little of that magic in 1977 that changed the way movies would forever be made.