Creative Psychosis

After seeing the midnight show last night for Revenge of the Sith and getting up for work on three and a half hours of sleep, I can’t imagine I’ll write too many super deep thoughts right now. But then, it’s not really a deep movie, so perhaps it all works out.

Sith, in my mind, was meant to do three main things: explain what it takes for Anakin to become Vader, show how all of the mighty Jedi get killed, and bridge the gap to the original trilogy. For those goals, I think Sith succeeded. While I knew 98% percent of what would happen because I read a trite too many spoilers, Sith still gets the job done in explanation for the common folk.

With Lucas writing and directing the film, you cannot go into a Star Wars movie expecting Shakespearean lines of poetry and grace from the dialogue. It just won’t happen. The guy constructed an elaborate and imaginative sci-fi universe, that is his calling card. Most reviewers expect too much out of his movies, that they’ll somehow miraculously have a grand emotional depth that was missing before. I do wish, however, that Lucas could have gotten away from recycling some of the classic lines like he did in Episode I & II. But he didn’t, and those lines often felt like a square peg being forced into a circular hole. Oh well.

On the other hand, if you go into Sith expecting crazy space battle scenes, mindblowing lightsaber duels, and awesome digital characters, then you shall be rewarded. General Grievous, Yoda and R2D2 (when he flies) are totally CGI, yet probably give some of the best performances of the film. There were even a few sequences when everyone in the crowd started clapping after something happened, which is always a positive.

Overall, knowing Lucas is too old to compose Episodes 7 through 9, and too egotistical to hand them off, Revenge of the Sith will be the last of the Star Wars movies that I’ll probably see in my lifetime. But that’s okay. It’s been a great ride growing up with the original trilogy, and then defining my twenties with the prequels. Sith is a worthy closure to the whole cinematic space opera, and a good movie to catch this summer for the sheer value of eyecandy.