George Lucas
La vendetta dei Sith

The faces impassive or almost so, as they learn of the worst atrocities, terrible truths, imminent tragedies. Actors who seem like mannequins in a world (rather, worlds) of poor computer graphics and lightning-fast lightsabers. Lucas even had the narrative material to make a good movie, but precisely because the content is high (in theory), the mediocre artistic execution stands out even more.

One of the favorite debates with friends at the bar. Episode three makes me sick, but for them, it's one of the best. Many reasons have been bouncing around in my head for fourteen years, but now, watching it again for the umpteenth rerun on TV, I've realized that there is almost a complete lack of empathy with the characters, who, for some absurd reason, react in a stiff manner to any event, even the most outrageous. And not only the lesser ones, like the now-mythical Hayden Christensen; even Ewan McGregor is stiff, plasticized. Natalie Portman relegated to a monotonous role, and surely we can't muster empathy for Samuel L. Jackson's Mace Windu.

It's an ugly film, and varied in its ugliness. Poorly conceived for long stretches, with anonymous or barely tangible backdrops, schematic and boring editing, flat shots, dialogues bordering on elementary logic, duels that sometimes seem like ridiculous choreographies with colored sticks.

But what cannot be forgiven of Lucas is the overall management of the trilogy: two almost useless films to reach this point where a somewhat rowdy Jedi champion must be transformed into a servant of evil. For a crude writer like Lucas, it's a Herculean task, and in fact, he builds Vader's metamorphosis on optimistic and insufficient footholds that suddenly justify the worst atrocities. The brain rejects such an implausible presupposition.

It's as if Vader is forgiven and absolved even before crossing to the dark side. And this makes his arc sad, cinematically speaking. It's an immersion into the roots of evil with a condom over your head, precluding from the start a true understanding of darkness. This is why the prequel trilogy is a failure, because Lucas cannot comprehend evil except in terms of good. But one of the greatest villains in history cannot be so only in terms of good.