A review of "Revenge of the Sith"

I have had the chance to sit through this movie twice, the first time for fun, the second time for observation. So I am pretty familiar with most of the movie, the characters, the plots, and some of the underlying tones of the movie.

Let me say right off that as a Star Wars fan, I was very excited to see how everything came together - how Ani became Darth, how Obi became Ben, and how Yoda landed up in a swamp in the middle of nowhere (my back yard resembles something like Yoda's place of exile - Dagobah - with all the rain we have been getting.) The characters were somewhat wooden at times, and some of the fight scenes had too many cheezy lines. I actually felt about Yoda the same way I felt about Morpheus by the end of the Matrix movies - basically please just shutup and fight. Yoda was doing his best Clint Eastwood impersonation when confronting the Emperor ("Not if anything to say about it I have" - ugh!).

But I honestly could care less about the dialogue because the story came full-circle. Many answers made up for goofy lines and bad acting. And the fight scenes were great - it seems that each character that lost in each battle REALLY lost. I did have to laugh at Yoda crawling through some mechanic tunnel near the end with just that brown, gunny sack outfit he was wearing - it was the same exact gunny sack that my action figure Yoda had growing up - I laughed at the memory as it brought me back.

OK - now let's talk about the movie on a deeper level. The first three movies that have dealt with the fall of Anakin have displayed what I feel to be an important principal, and that is that the differences between someone who is really good and someone who is really evil are most often a few bad choices that lead down a dark path. It amazed me how Anakin continually made small choices that led him deeper towards his ultimate conversion to Vader. It wasn't a one time, "all of a sudden I'm evil now" kind of choice. It was a passion for his loved ones that led him to make wrong decisions - and you could actually understand why he would do what he did - but no less is the point made that we all could be Vader.

The apostle Paul addresses this very thing in Romans 7:15-17 when he says this,

"I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things."

Amazing, isn't it? We look at those who commit atrocities against humanity, and we think, "What animals!" But really, a few bad decisions and giving into that sin inside of us, and we can find ourselves along that dark path becoming our own version of Darth Vader.

Luke Skywalker is reminded of the potential to follow in his father's footsteps in The Empire Strikes Back when training with Yoda. In other words, those who do not remember history or doomed to repeat it.

Of the many lessons that this movie series had, this is one that has stuck with me. I would love to hear your thoughts.