Revenge Of The Sith

Saw it last night. For the first twenty or so minutes I was scared this was going to be my first time falling asleep in the movie theater, then, in a neat twist, this movie was handily saved by some pretty decent acting. I almost can’t believe it myself. As profound as Anakin Skywalker’s Descent Into Darkness was, however, it is clear that this exact same story, in the hands of a better writer, would have had me sobbing in my seat like a fourteen-year-old girl at her first viewing of Titanic. It is so sad when a work of fiction has all the ingredients for greatness and just doesn’t make use of them.

Other notes:

Battle Dress Wookies are completely cool.

I object to the term “younglings.” Even though it is clear what is meant, this strange word ends up lessening the impact of what happened.

It is interesting that the Dark Side makes one’s eyes yellow.

After Hayden Christensen, the best thing about the movie is the Wagnerian soundtrack, which I purchased today.

Generally speaking, I can cope with the continuity problems, except this bugs me: at the end of Episode III the twins are born, separated and the story is ready to resume at Episode IV. When Episode IV opens they are, what? 20? Certainly not as old as 25. And yet in that time period Obi-Wan has changed from 35 to 75 and Luke’s aunt has aged from 20-something to about 55.

Speaking of plot and continuity problems, after the movie was over we stumbled across our friend John smoking cigarettes and stomping around the parking lot on theme “They’ve ruined Star Wars. These movies were awful. It was so good and they ruined it.” It is pathetic to see a 38-year-old man in this condition. Although I think his pre-teen daughter was just embarrassed.