Revenge of the Sith

I know the secret of the Sith revenge - they want to disappoint us and bore us all to death. Yes, I went to see the new, and I sincerely hope last ever, Star Wars movie last night. Oh how I cried! Not because the scenes were so moving, but that they added this crap to the excellence of the first series. Actually, the rot was beginning to set in with Return of the Jedi, but I was too young and naive to see it then, but looking back on it, that was the first of the films that catered to 'the kids'.

That said, I liked the darkness of 'Revenge' but there just wasn't enough of it. I was already disenchanted with Episode 1 and the pointless killing of one of the best Star Wars characters ever: Darth Maul. Episode 2 almost completely passed me by and I eventually watched it on an overnight ferry crossing when I had really nothing else to do and insomnia set in. So, all in all I wasn't expecting much from Episode 3 and I was still disappointed.

You know that the acting is bad when a green puppet steals the show, but honestly, the fight scenes with Yoda were the best parts of both Episodes 2 and 3. The absolute highlight of the film was when Darth Vader put on his new mask. The heavy breathing and the smoky voice of James Earl Jones gave me goose pimples the size of oranges and sent such shivers down my spine that my neighbour nearly spilled his cola. In my opinion, the darkness of the Sith characters was never exploited to its full potential with Darth Maul being cruelly killed off in Episode 1. What a great confrontation that would have been to end the series with. Darth Maul was so hard, mean and just plain spine chillingly evil, that I would have loved to have seen how Darth Vader would have managed to do him over.

I guess the biggest complaint I have with this series are the mind-numbing dialogues and the sheer predictability of it all. That is what you get when you start filming prequels, but life is never as simple as all that. It was incredibly non-dimensional with platitudes flying left and right. A little bit of subtlety and an unexpected turn of events here and there might have left the public wanting more. Let's face it, you couldn't want less. That said, the great unwashed masses will probably flock to see to the inevitable Episodes 7,8 and 9 simply because they have nothing better to do. Cultural poverty is indeed on the increase.