Movie Review: Star Wars Episode III (3.5 of 5)

At first glance, Star Wars Episode III is nothing more than a glamorous movie with cool special effects, a shallow plot, cheezy dialogue, and too many lightsaber battles. But there's much more to it than that. It's an interesting study of the corruption of politics, and a sad, powerful story of the consequences of lies and deception. In other words, there's a plot, too.

But the special effects definitely take center stage. And they are marvelous. Definitely the best I've seen in any movie to date, including Lord of the Rings and all previous Star Wars. The opening scene alone involves an galactic battle in outer space, with huge spaceships and little fighters (all incredibly detailed), lots of firing and explosion, homing missiles, buzz droids attacking fighters, R2-D2 attacking buzz droids... how marvelous! And the marvel continues throughout the movie. Just thinking about all the work that went into sets and costumes and computer effects and everything else makes my head spin. There are lots of classic breath-taking aerial shots of planet surfaces or huge cities with their arrays of odd-shaped buildings. There's a planet full of erupting volcanoes. Obi-Wan rides a giant lizard. A droid wields four lightsabers. I mean, what more could you want?

Coinciding with the special effects is all the action and fighting. This is definitely PG-13 violence. Not only do virtually all of the Jedi get killed (this movie is about their demise, after all), but sometimes a character is disarmed by another and then helplessly murdered. It's just rather dark. And the action is almost overloaded. Scenes change quickly at fast paces with the classic Star Wars transitions, but sometimes it's almost at random. Oh, the scene's over already? There are about a dozen different characters that use lightsabers for countless battles. It would get old if it wasn't for the constant change of landscape: spaceships, volcano planets, barren rocky planets, Jedi temples, senate council chambers... it really is quite exciting.

There is the unfortunate dialogue, of course. Hayden Christensen will be picked on for years to come as we mock his monotone. ("I'm overwhelmed," he says at one point, but by his facial expression and body language, I couldn't even tell.) Some characters' lines are just random and useless. But every now and then something comes across as funny.

On to the plot. It's really not too bad. It's interesting to watch the three different branches of power as they struggle for control. And it's sad to watch Palpatine deceive Anakin into thinking the Jedi are the bad guys. But Anakin really does have a noble, if deceived, purpose for turning to the Dark side, although I won't spoil it for you. The point is, behind the special effects, action, and dialogue, this movie's got a pretty good plot.

And no matter what your opinion of Star Wars is, you can't deny the wonder of the whole complicated Star Wars universe, involving so many characters of so many races of so many planets, with so many histories and technologies and... I mean, it's really incredible, falling short only to the world of Lord of the Rings. (But, come on, who else really has time to invent complete languages?)

So, if you can survive the poor dialogue and the constant fighting and violence, marvel at the special effects as you watch the plot unfold and see how everything comes together for the final piece of the Star Wards duo-trilogy, or whatever the zeus you call it.

Edmond the Hun