24th May, 2005

GAVIN BOX

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith (M)

THE FINAL CHAPTER: Senator Padme Amidala with Anakin Skywalker and perennial favorites C-3P0 and R2 D2 in the background. "Director George Lucas has some good material to work with in Revenge of the Sith - the power of evil to seduce, entice and entrap; the process by which the noblest of people can become morally compromised - but it just doesn't quite come off."

Eye-boggling special effects, exciting action sequences and a sense of closure are just enough to make Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith worth viewing. While the graphic violence in this final chapter in the Star Wars saga will rule this one out for young audiences, fans of the original Star Wars trilogy will enjoy seeing the loose ends finally come together. Director George Lucas has some good material to work with in Revenge of the Sith - the power of evil to seduce, entice and entrap; the process by which the noblest of people can become morally compromised - but it just doesn't quite come off. In a nutshell, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), a noble Jedi knight, makes the fateful decision to turn away from a righteous way of life to the 'dark side''. He does this, we are told, because of his desire for control. He wants to ensure that those he loves most will be kept safe. It's a noble desire, but taken to an all-consuming extreme it leads him to compromise his code, and finally engage in acts of bloody revenge and destruction formerly abhorrent to himself. It's a promising synopsis, but the plot and characterisation aren't quite up to it. Unfortunately Anakin's fateful decision to abdicate his knighthood and turn to evil, and his unlikely romantic relationship with Senator Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) lacks emotional conviction. On the one hand, Anakin appears resentful about Jedi authority over his life and is given to fits of temper, yet at the same time he always finds it within himself to follow the Jedi code. It therefore seems inconceivable that he should suddenly turn against that code and his brotherhood. Perhaps it would have been more credible if more was made of the addictive and anaesthetising power of evil in Anakin's life; how, having given himself over to evil in a small measure, it gradually consumed more and more of him. Yet instead of portraying Anakin as an increasingly hardened soul, unwilling to curb his violent tendencies and unrepentant over his darkest deeds, we have an idealistic young man who just seems confused and a conflicted. Hardly the psychopathic type. Yet for all its faults, the skeleton of the story will still provide food for thought. That Anakin ultimately becomes “more machine than man'' is a wonderful allegory of the human condition. Whenever we give themselves over to debased desires, we lose part of ourselves and become somehow much less than what we were created to be.