Stuff by Steve

This review contains comments that may spoil the film if you haven’t seen it; in this case, refrain from reading the italicised text.

For this third (sixth?) and allegedly final installment of the Star Wars series, I went into the theatre with a sense of both elation and grief. At last, I was going to see the final movie in the saga of one of my favourite sci-fi stories of all time. And, at the same time, I was two-and-a-half hours away from the end of having anything to look forward to. It was the culmination - yes, the termination - of many years of anticipation, imagination, and hope.

This time, the anticipation was not without sweet relief. George Lucas, the writer/director/creator/general-royalties-collector, took some bold and risky steps with this film, one being that this was the only Star Wars movie rated higher than PG [in the US - most of Canada still classifies it as PG]. But, more important, the story itself was unapologetic in its telling of the tale of a tortured man and his place in the imminent downfall of mankind (species-kind?). This movie may well be the most dramatic out of the six, even if it falls short of being the best overall. Lucas claimed that his intention was to tell the right story at the expense of making the movie more broadly appealing, and I think it paid off with its authenticity and impact. I loved this film; it was hard-hitting and beautiful, taking away your breath and replacing it with a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Not everything in this movie was to love, however. The first part of the movie seemed almost like an hour-long theatrical trailer. Scene after scene was thrust in your face, driven by action that seemed to almost supersede the story. Dialog interspersed the proceedings, but only to give credence to what had happened or what was to follow.

And it was the dialog itself that was partly to blame for the failings of the first half. It seemed like it was almost a dispassionate narration of the events, delivered from the actors as if speed-reading their lines. Only Ewan McGregor’s performance as Obi-wan Kenobi was consistently good; I found myself watching scenes and wishing that he would make an appearance. Things picked up overall about halfway through the movie as the plot fleshed itself out, but nevertheless, some scenes never made the turn.

There was still plenty to take note of. The scenery in this movie was incredible. Every visual backdrop had some immense boldness to it that simply took your breath away. From the red-hot planetscape of Mustafar to the image of a capital ship disintegrating during a raging battle scene to the mountainous forests of the Wookie planet Kashyyyk to the slow pan of Padme’s glimmering starship, the visual splendor of the movie made you sit back in your chair and gasp. After five movies we thought that everything cool had already been thought of, but somehow, they had saved the best for last. This was accented by eye-popping action sequences that filled the foreground in rapid succession. If it hadn’t been done so skillfully, one might say the action was over-the-top. But one never tired of it, finding one’s self being drawing closer and closer to the edge of one’s seat.

Gushing aside, I’ve got some beefs I need to get off my chest. First of all, what was with General Grievous and his constant wheezing? He’s a robot. Oh, I see - it’s because he has some biological components, such as a live, beating heart. So, why does a robot have a live, beating heart? In the end, he was one of the more interesting villains in the series, but in fitting with the direction set by the beginning of the movie (see above), he seemed to exist only to give Obi-wan someone to fight since Count Dooku was (necessarily) killed so early on.

The biggest disappointment I felt was that there weren’t enough Wookies. For all that George Lucas has said about falling in love with the species that he invented, he sure gave them a real cursory treatment. Sad, as most people will agree that Chewbacca was the coolest alien in the original movie series. I wanted to see, albeit not literally, Wookies pulling the arms of clones out of their sockets.

I can’t forget the nagging questions. First, why did Obi-wan let Anikan slowly suffer as he burned, instead of ending his life? I suppose I’d find it difficult to put my best friend to the sword, regardless of how on-fire he was, but it still seemed odd, perhaps because there was no apparent deliberation in Obi-wan’s mind.

Second, what happened to all the remaining Jedi that were supposedly warned by the homing beacon that Obi-wan “fixes”? They didn’t show up in any of the following movies. Who knows? It could have been too late to save any of them, but it was never mentioned. Maybe in the DVD.

Still, these are not show-stopping issues. There are some very poignant moments in the film. Obi-wan’s tortured “final” conversation with Anakin. Yoda’s near-defeatist resignation as he comes to terms with his failure to defeat Darth Sidious.

There is humour, too. I think everyone’s favourite was the scene with R2-D2 in the hangar bay with the two battle droids. Overall, I think that they finally began to get their comic-relief groove back with both R2 and C-3PO, just in time to close out the series. Yoda also drew giggles with his sarcastic chiding of various bad guys. In fact, as an aside, Yoda’s representation was the best yet in any of the movies.

Overall, with the distinct seriousness of the story, this may not be everyone’s movie. I think it also lost appeal through a lack of focus - I never shook that feeling that the movie was made only to set up for the real story about Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and the gang in the movies that followed chronologically.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the movie was very intelligently and eloquently done. “Less focus” in this case meant “more epic,” giving us a story that didn’t lose its impact despite its scope. I felt that the doom that hung in the air throughout the film was almost palpable, and a sense of dread clinging gloomily to the eyes of every character that wasn’t aligned with the Dark Side (and some that were). As the end approached, each scene made you hold just a little more breath, even as you knew how it would turn out. The real testament of how good this movie was came from how it captured my attention even though I knew the ending, and that says more than just about anything.

What I appreciated the most, not just about this movie but about the entire series, was that it was a classic story of good versus evil. Some have inferred that George Lucas may have been playing a satire of modern politics; I don’t know if this is true, but it certainly doesn’t need to be. Lucas has said that the story, right from the original film in 1977, has been successful because of its black-and-white nature. This kind of story contains all of the dichotomies, polarizations, moral dilemmas, and deceptions as any political or moral story does, and its appeal stems from the fact that we can relate to it so easily.