Hack work - competently done, but no genius here.

Rating: 6/10 (23 May 2005)

So, after the first trilogy was completed, what did George and the rest of us realise? Yes, the really interesting character wasn't the boy Luke, our cardboard cutout hero, but his immensely deeper, wiser and more evil father, Darth Vader. His story ends in redemption and death, but begs the question, how did he fall from grace and become a puppet in the hands of the Emperor Palpatine?
An excellent question that offers the opportunity to develop a work of great gravitas and tragic majesty, as the promising and noble Annikin Skywalker is seduced and betrayed into taking up the Dark Side and losing everything except the illusion of power. And you can see that George is trying. In the "reveal" at the end of the movie, Darth Vader is winched up before our eyes, like an important piece of scenery. The music swells to fever pitch, the dry ice is flowing, the lighting is perfect - surely a Titan or God is being born on the Grand Operatic Stage George Lucas believes he has created? Don Giovanni? Gotterdammerung?
Nope. Underneath the Dark Helmet, breathing stentoriously, is a puling, whining, ill-disciplined, complainer. A whingeing careerist who didn't get what he wanted when he wanted it and decided to take it out on everyone. In the first trilogy, Darth Vader had gravitas and a certain tragic nobility. Here, his precursor is a lightweight; nothing of note. His moral transformation is as slight as a breeze. The characterisation is so shallow as if to be almost non-existent. Lucas moves the characters about like plot-driven tokens on a Risk board. There is no emotional connection between the audience and his actors. He doesn't even attempt the barest minimum of emotional consistency within Skywalker's character. On one hand we are led to believe that he will embrace the Dark Side on the flimsy premise that he must do so to save Padme's life, on the other he is prepared to kill her on the most spurious misunderstanding, and without giving her the chance to explain. He rails against the Jedi Council for not awarding him the title of Master and in doing so, exemplifies why they would be stupid to do so.
In the end, all the basic plot points are covered so that the petty tyrants who require consistency in their fantasy timelines should be generally satisfied. The most obvious loose ends are tied up, and then some. Is it really credible, for example, that Princess Leia's distinctive "danish" hairstyle is something she would inherit from her dead mother? Extreme Lamarckism, I would have said. Did the one wookie mentioned by name really have to be Chewbacca? Are we really that dumb we have to led by the nose?
I saw the film with my 13 year-old nephew - surely within the target demographic that Lucas aims for. As soon as the film's opening action sequence ended and a turgid longeur of bad writing, bad direction, bad acting and tiresome plot exposition began, he dropped off for a nap until the light sabre action started again. Despite having a guaranteed audience of excited kids and nostalgic adults, it turns out that Lucas couldn't really hold our attention or deliver the goods. The original Darth Vader deserved so much more and Lucas delivered so much less.
Overcooked, overwrought and underwhelming.