Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

revenge of the sith

On a semi-spur-of-the-moment whim, I saw a midnight showing of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith last night with Rob, Shawn and Dari.

The bad news: A shockingly paltry selection of die-hard Star Wars geeks in costume to observe in their natural habitat. They must have all been over at the Uptown, because there was nary a light saber in sight.

The good news: The movie didn’t suck.

It wasn’t the be-all, end-all — certainly not better than the original trilogy — but it’s most definitely a step up from the stilted dreck of the first two Star Wars prequels. There’s lots of action and tons of great (and believable) special effects. There’s still awful dialogue and that irritating romantic subplot, but most of it can be taken in stride (or is so bad it deserves a laugh) and the movie as a whole is entertaining enough to help outweigh the negatives.

Hayden Christensen as Anakin doesn’t evoke conflicted Vader-in-training so much as a sullen teenager in a snit, sorely in need of a shampoo. (I did get a thrill out of the return of James Earl Jones’s voice, but that’s entirely separate from Christensen’s performance.) Obi-Wan, Yoda and even R2-D2 have great moments throughout the movie.

I’m especially happy that it serves as a fairly coherent bridge between the prequels and the original trilogy, finally explaining to the mass audience how things came to be in the first Star Wars film, with Luke and Leia growing up separately, Uncle Owen’s references to Luke’s father and cranky old Ben Kenobi.