ROTS - Tedious and over-political.

Rating: 5/10 (21 May 2005)

Well, I have seen "Revenge of the Sith" and I find it interesting to note that - appropriately - the initials are ROTS.
Lucas had a difficult task in front of him. He had to take the franchise home. In terms of tying up the loose ends of the story, the film accomplished that. We do find out how Anakin becomes Vader and why he wears that robotic get up. We get to see Luke and Leia born and the destruction of the Jedi order (including a deeply disturbing scene in the Jedi temple). But in every other way the film is a disappointing end to one of the great cinematic accomplishments in history.
The dialog is bland at best - and sometimes absolutely inane. Early on, a scene between Padme and Anakin is horrible. I was in pain for the actors who had to recite those lines with a straight face. And while we can expect Lucas to pontificate, some of his lines are so clearly based on anti-Bush rhetoric (in spite of his denials) that they distract from the movie. (When Obi-wan starts out with "You are either on our side . . ." I actually involuntarily said out loud "OH PLEASE!") Burdened with this annoying political posturing and some truly BAD dialog that was non-political, the movie drags on trying to faithfully bring together the elements needed to set the stage for episode IV. Some of those scenes are satisfying and the storytelling - Lucas's strong point - works in THAT context. The ending succeeded in bringing us back to the beginning, as it were, with scenes that will be familiar to fans of the original. But the road to that bit of satisfaction is tedious.
WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILER (But come on, EVERYBODY knows this!): There are some positive points. Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine shines in this episode. His eventual unmasking as Darth Sidious is well-played and his seduction of Vader is suitably subtle and believable (again, within the limitations of the sad dialog). Hayden Christensen as Anakin, too, plays his part well, convincingly wavering between the loyalty he feels to the Jedi and the seduction of the dark side. The role was a challenge and Christensen rose to it. Also, Lucas's motivation for the eventual transformation of Anakin into Vader makes sense and takes into account Anakin's life experience and personality. Since this was the prime motivation for the movie (indeed, the whole prequel trilogy) this is an important achievement. The special effects are, of course, excellent - although some of the early scenes do play more like a video game than a movie.
In all though, Lucas was better off leaving the legacy at three movies. The original film "Lord of the Rings" back in the seventies failed because the producers ran out of money. Lucas had plenty of money. He just ran out of ideas.