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Marc Mason is a freelance writer based in Tempe, AZ.
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HAPPY NONSENSE: POP CULTURE CONFIDENTIAL
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Sunday, May 22, 2005
SITH
It didn't suck.
Admittedly, I wasn't holding the film to the highest standards, and I wasn't even sure if I'd see it opening weekend. After all, I thought Episode 2, "Anakin's Creek," was an abortion of biblical proportions. So I openly admit that Episode 3 did't have to go far to make me happy.
Still, I found myself entertained. I shut off my higher brain functions, sat back, and watched Lucas put the pieces together, and goddamn if it didn't start to reel me in. The scenes between Hayden Christianson and Natalie Portman were still uniformly dull and contrived; why Lucas was never able or interested in using Portman's talents to their fullest is a mystery we'll never solve. Christianson's whiny petulance scaled back to just petulance, and at this stage of his life, he actually looks like he could be related to Mark Hamill. But the true star is Ewan McGregor, who looks like he's finally having fun in one of these things. He looked flat-out embarrassed in Episode Two, but SITH finds him gleefully channelling a young Alec Guinness and livening up his every scene with elan and verve.
I may even go back to the theatre and see this one again. It isn't often that you can say that watching a bad guy get his legs and arm chopped off and then catch fire is exhilarating, but then again, why wouldn't it be? That's just what turns out to have entertained people a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
4:53 PM
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