Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith
Revenge, as 'they' say, is a dish best served cold. And 'cold' is certainly how George Lucas has left most critics feeling after his latest intergalactic spectacular.
'The acting is ghastly, the dialogue totters by on stilts,' reports the Times. 'How depressing to compare any of this with the fun and gusto of the first movie,' harks the Guardian.
It is, of course, the job of critics to pour scorn, not butter, over Hollywood's summer-season popcorn. But speaking as someone who, until recently, turned empty air-fresheners into spacecraft fit for plastic Star Wars characters, it's hard not to get excited about this film, whether it's critically acclaimed or not.
The original Star Wars not only created the modern blockbuster; it fired and inspired the imaginations of millions of would-be Jedis.
From the start, Lucas merged classic myth with modern storytelling: knights, wizards, monks and princesses found themselves engaged in a war against a parody of the fascist empires of the 20th century.
Just as Tolkien portrayed the loss of country life to industrialisation in Lord of the Rings, so Lucas, in setting his epic 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away', examines the stuff of legend, the stories that have given shape and succour to our society, and which we're in danger of losing in a media saturated age.
Lucas has said that he created the Jedi Knight in order to re-introduce a sense of the religious to today's young. While the Jedi 'faith' is closer to Buddhism than Christianity (emphasising detachment from materialism in order to become one with a mysterious life force), it nevertheless teaches the importance of patience, self-sacrifice and the wisdom of listening to and learning from one's elders.
In Revenge..., Lucas continues the political parable. As a power-toting politician manipulates a democratic republic into becoming a demonic empire, we hear one 'senator' mourn, 'We were fighting for the wrong side all along.' The director is clearly voicing his fears for democracy in the West.
While the prequels have come under harsh scrutiny, this is the best of them; meanwhile, the title of episode 4, 'A New Hope', serves to remind me, along with the series as a whole, of the significance of a star that appeared not all that long ago in a place not so very far, far away...
Jason Gardner
Comments
There are currently no comments for this article.
