Film

End of the Jedi

‘Revenge of the Sith’ Awakens a Sleeping Fanboy

by Bradley Steinbacher

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REVENGE OF THE SITH “End of franchise, this is.”

Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith
dir. George Lucas
Opens Thurs May 19.

And so it ends, not with a bang but with a wheeze—specifically, the iconic gasping of one Darth Vader, lackey to the evil Emperor, father of Luke and Leia, and the honkiest guy in the galaxy to ever be voiced by James Earl Jones. Unless you’ve spent the past few years tucked inside a tauntaun, chances are you’re well aware that Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith is the final installment in George Lucas’ “epic space opera,” the film that bridges the old and the new, the beloved and the reviled. You may or may not become excited now; after the heaving blunder of Episode I and the tad better Episode II, reservations about the finale will certainly be forgiven. But here’s the thing: Episode III, while not the series-saving installment it needed to be (an impossible task, really), nonetheless satisfied this one-time fanboy more than expected. It ain’t The Empire Strikes Back, but then, it ain’t Return of the Jedi either.

And let’s be clear: As atrocious as The Phantom Menace turned out to be, it was Episode VI, with its unforgivable ewoks and equally unforgivable dud of a climax (not to mention the shameful snuffing of Boba Fett), that first spelled doom for the series. Back in 1983, the rebels may have won the war, but the future of Lucas’ universe looked bleak, a disturbance in the Force amplified years later with both the dubiously modified reissue of the original trilogy and the arrival of Episode I, when Lucas destroyed cherished childhood memories (Greedo shoots first) while raiding piggybanks the world over with the thrilling adventure of a trade dispute. Dark side indeed.

Now, however, comes Revenge of the Sith, by far the bleakest, and therefore least kid-friendly, edition in the series. From the first word of the opening crawl—“War!”—Lucas plunges into chaos with uncharacteristic immediacy, trailing Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) as they attempt to rescue Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid, giving the best performance in the film) from the clutches of a wretched android named General Grievous. It’s by far the biggest action sequence in all of the Star Wars films, moving from dogfighting in space to light-saber duels on a star cruiser at breakneck speed—and it signals that this time Lucas isn’t screwing around. This is his last chance, after all, quite possibly his retirement letter, and there’s much for him to wrap up.

Namely, the transformation of Anakin Skywalker from petulant “chosen one” to ruthless helmeted one, finally bringing to the screen the birth of one of cinema’s most popular villains. And it’s about time: If the previous two prequels were sorely missing anything—besides skillful writing, direction, and acting—it was Darth Vader, who, despite being a bit dated, remains some cool shit. Vader’s presence in Revenge of the Sith, brief though it may be, acts as a bridge between past and present, reminding us of why we fell in love with the original trilogy (or at least the first two films) in the first place. He also acts as a reminder that, once upon a time, Lucas was some kind of visionary, blessed with both an unimpeachable imagination and a storytelling savvy that were all but impossible to resist.

And Episode III will, indeed, be impossible to resist. Like it or not, the Force is with all of us, and I for one am more than happy to have seen the series through. There are haunting moments in Revenge of the Sith (when Anakin switches on his light saber in the Jedi Academy I defy you not to get chills), and even though the film also has its truly embarrassing elements—romance, as always, remains an elusive creature to Lucas, and in the end the evil Sith lord’s scheme to turn Anakin over to the dark side is hysterically obvious (who knew Darth Vader was such an easily manipulated dolt?)—at this point there’s doesn’t seem to be much of a reason to quibble. The epic many of us grew up with has reached its end; a moment of silence, please, for both what was and what could have been.