A full step behind Empire, even with Star Wars for different reasons

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 1999)

Luke's allegorical phantom confrontation with Vader on Dagobah, the revelatory confrontation between the two on Bespin, and the drama of Solo's being frozen in carbonite set Empire above the other two in the original trilogy. Empire puts flesh on the mythic bones presented in Star Wars, which is remarkable for the simplicity of its story -- a farm boy, a mercenary and an elder knight rescue a princess from a dark castle and dark lord, then return to disintegrate it! Return of the Jedi perhaps had the easiest task of the three and did well for the most part. The great escape from Jabba's sail barge is tremendous fun, if somewhat improbable (specifically, that Luke could foresee where R2 would be in relation to him to propel his new lightsaber to him; but that's the Force -- excuse me, talking bacteria in our blood now, after Episode I). And the slow, sinister game of cat and mouse in the Emperor's throne room -- between the Emperor, then Vader, and Luke -- elegantly deadly with the iridescent arcs of lightsabers in the darkness, provided a triumphant close. It was just the Ewoks that brought down an otherwise incredible second sequel. Cuteness only goes so far when one is trying to portray a struggle for the fate of the galaxy; and unfortunately, Mr. Lucas succumbs again in Phantom Menace. Why, why would one use obviously phony aliens with terrible mock-Asian accents when the stern Englishmen aboard the Death Star in Star Wars performed so well and painted the Empire as a bland, starched, strict entity that -- with the Stormtroopers -- clearly evoked the Nazi regime? Now we have Jar Jar and his silly tribe and a two-headed pod-racing/basketball analyst; and to make matters worse and as I mentioned before, Mr. Lucas has flayed the flesh from those mythic bones by reducing the Force to something that characters can only feel because of a strain of bacteria in them. Not the mind, not the soul or will -- bacteria. Superintelligent bacteria, no doubt, and wise enough to engineer a virgin birth (!?) at just the right time and place in the story's timeline; but still, changing the touchstone of the Force from humanity to bacteria was a poor, poor decision. Episode I is a visual delight, the lightsaber duels light-years beyond those in the original trilogy; but the original had magic. And that, I hope Mr. Lucas will understand, is something that all of the digital effects and funny, diverse aliens in the universe cannot replace. The relevance of this long tangent, then, is that it enables me to say this: when Return of the Jedi ends, as flames dance before Luke and consume his father's bier, cleansing the black armor and rising into the night, as John Williams' powerful composition presents the Force theme one final, stirring time, there is magic; there is myth and the closing of a cycle. Treasure it, but keep what comes "after" separate -- in a galaxy far, far away. (Of course, it may be that Episodes II and III are able to find the magic again; the great questions remain unanswered: why did Anakin turn? how was his body shattered then armored? I hold out that hope; 5 of 6 would be remarkable. Time will tell.)