the final act of what could have been....

Rating: 6/10 (27 May 2005)

Revenge of the Sith is by far the best of the recent trilogy, but this really isn't saying much. In order to fully appreciate the film it must be considered the final third act of one piece of work. Unfortunately although this final film is much more entertaining and contains much that is worthy of credit, it has to pull itself up from the appalling first two films. I found the story of Annakin's rise and fall to the dark-side interesting and filled with dramatic potential and perhaps in better hands this would have been better realised. Unfortunately George Lucas's skills as a scriptwriter are non-existent and whilst the story is excellent, the realisation of it is very poor.
It is hard to feel the emotion and pain of Annakin's downfall in the way in which we should because of the simple fact that every character is poorly sketched out (and acted). The other two films should have made us feel and relate to the characters. The poor acting is not i feel due to the actors themselves but is the fault of a lack of direction. That said Haydon Christiensen is very good in this film. Much has been made of George Lucas's lack of care for actors and character, this is a real shame as the story he is attempting to make is an entirely character driven and psychological one. If he had built upon the characters and encouraged the actors and nurtured the story lines throughout the first two of the films this final part would have been a stunning and moving experience but as it stands now it is a flawed but never the less entertaining film.
I would recommend this film for people to see as it is extremely entertaining and full of excellent action set pieces. It is also very dark and it is intriguing and to see Anakin's fall and the pieces fall into place leading the narrative on to A New Hope. But you can not avoid the fact that the first two parts of the story are utterly lacking in every respect. This should be the final act of a great masterpiece and the final pin in a six part epic story. But instead is an entertaining film that makes you lament what could have been and that (perhaps) is more upsetting than the film itself.