More thoughts on Sith

For all its faults (and they many) I can't help but acknowledge a slow slide
towards improvement in this movie.
Given enough dollars and prequels, George Lucas may even have produced a good Star Wars
long around the fourteenth or fifteenth try.  Granted the laundry list of
problems major and minor, here are the things that made Sith a better
movie than Phantom Menace or Clones:

The Calm Before the Storm: Taking his cue from Peter Jackson, Lucas struck
the dialogue (thankfully) and gave us a moving moment of dramatic tension
just before Anakin takes the final plunge to the dark side.  On Coruscant,
Anakin broods alone in the Jedi Temple while Padme dreads their future in
her apartment in a separate building across the skyline.  The sun is
setting.  Dramatic music (perhaps the only original melody John Williams
composed for Ep. III) swells.  We are hanging on the edge of the cliff.
This was probably the best (or second best) moment in the entire movie.

Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen: Acting aside, they looked the part.
Casting has always been one of Lucas and his loyal hound Rick McCallum’s
primary strengths.  Compare Christensen’s floppy bangs with Luke’s
windswept blond hair and the resemblance is remarkable.

Visuals, Taking us Home:  Even though reminders that this movie is related
to the classic Star Wars are painful for Kris, I appreciated the solid
visual links to A New Hope.  Prototypical X-Wings, Jedi Starfighters one
evolutionary step away from TIEs, and the sterile white of the Blockade
Runner’s interior are all comforting images.  They remind me of what Star
Wars was, that inspite of all this crap and confusion we’ve somehow gotten back to
the beginning, and now we can start to put this prequel debacle behind
us.  When I watch Tatooine’s twin suns set, I feel better, because I know
that the healing can now begin.