A troubled film.

Rating: Null/10 (31 October 2010)

I'm sorry, but I just don't know what else to say about this film. This is truly a piece of cinema that is struggling to entertain. With some of the most impressive visuals seen in the last 100 years of filmmaking, one wonders what went amiss here.
The opening sequence of the two jedi pilots flying through the battle looks and feels odd, and sets the tone for the overall story. Many complain about the juvenile aspect of "The Phantom Menace", and some of the kitschy story telling of the second film; "Attack of the Clones". But for me this film tops them all in terms of getting sidetracked by the visuals.
For a film that's supposed to be rated-R it sure does seem to lean towards a kiddy audience in a very bizarre way. So much that I'm hard pressed to label this thing other than a skittish film that bounces from here to there in terms of at whom the story particulars were aimed.
The best way to critique this film is to look at the first Star Wars film ever made. That movie was a bit of an homage to the old sci-fi serials, just like the Indiana Jones were an homage to the serial adventure series. But the thing about the original Star Wars film was that there was a grounding there, a sense of plausibility and realism that melded with the far off setting and adventure. When Leia was about to be interrogated in the Death Star, we knew she was in for a round of torture and horror. We never saw it, but it was very much implied. When Luke was looking out at the twin G1 and G2 stars of Tatooine, we saw a sunset shot as a real sunset, framed and pictured for us by Carole Ballards magnificent lensing; cinematography that gave a bit of a documentary feel combined with a classic film making framing reminiscent of films like "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Ben Hur" or even "Shane". We were slowly introduced into that environment after having a taste of action in the beginning. And that's the other case for the original Star Wars film; example; the opening fire fight shows us a sense of reality, a sense of danger, a sense of plausibility and tension without an emphasis on showing off the visuals, or getting side tracked by truly unimportant SFX. The story dictated the shots, not the reverse.
With "Revenge of the Sith", and looking at the silly light saber fights, the puzzling antics detracting from the story direction (cutesy but dangerous miniature robots instead of an explosive warhead on a missile? Exactly who is this film for?), implausible feats even by super hero standards, simply put, torpedo this thing to the bottom of the interstellar equivalent of Davy Joneses locker.
I saw it twice in the theatre. Once by myself, then again with some people I knew at the time. And I just couldn't get over the complete comic book abandon this film took to tell the story. It's like if someone were to make a prequel to "Spartacus", and ditched all of the scope and profound character driven moments, and instead replaced them with cool martial arts action and flying weapons to take sword and sandal epics "in a new direction".
And for all of the spectacular visuals the one thing that really gets me, that really makes me wonder, is that none, and I mean positively none of the special effects looked real. Visually spectacular, and technical wizardry beyond my SFX background, of that there is no doubt. But for all that, they looked like glamorized photo-realistic cartoons.
That is key.
The whole point behind the first film was to bring those exciting moments of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon to the big screen in an updated and more technically and dramatically driven vein. Every sci-fi fan loved the effort, me included. But these latest films? And specifically the last one? Wow, what a disappointment.
But, they're the author's films, and what are we going to do about it? That's the vision he chose, and that's what we have.
Hopefully the next big sci-fi film maker will throw something up on the screen with a bit more care, and perhaps be a bit more hands on in the art department and cinematography.
For something as big and well known as Star Wars, there's a certain weight that the films needed to live up to. But the story is more fairy tale than the other films ever were, and fused with some outlandish and unconvincing special effects and action that really take over the film, one is very hard pressed to gleam anything positive out of this.
I'll be brutally honest here, I think of my own film career and the opportunity I had to work up there in Marin (LF, ILM, Sp), and am glad I didn't. As a grip, PA or AD I wouldn't have had one iota in terms of creative input, and to be honest with myself my review is all hindsight, so I'm not even sure I would have had the wherewithal nor courage to point out some of the really obvious foibles in this piece. I mean, I'm not the director, and every director I used to work for had their view on how right their vision was; i.e. infallible. Is the author of Star Wars any different? I don't know.
Watch at your own risk.