BOXING is not alone in being the graveyard of comebacks.

George Lucas has at last completed his Star Wars saga, ending in the middle and in yet another disappointing, incomprehensible heap with Episode III, the sith, sorry sixth, journey into a sci-fi galaxy far, far away. Even now, after 28 years, he will not let it lie, promising 3-D versions to come.

Revenge Of The Sith - doesn't it sound more like a speech impediment? - is the linking chapter that will explain Anakin Skywalker's descent into the dark side and rebirth as the heavy-breathing Lord Darth Vader.

Lucas had promised his loyal audience "Titanic in space" as his finale but he burdened himself with Hayden Christenson as his young lead, and alas this pretty boy is more Anadin than Anakin, ending up in the grey rather than dark side.

As ever a yellow scroll of portentous words rumbles across the screen to provide a quick refresher course and latest score flash in the Empire struggles. In a nutshell, the Republic is typically turbulent, the Clone Wars are entering a crucial phase, and young Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker has arrived home to learn his young bride, Natalie Portman's doomed Princess Padm, is expecting twins. Death in childbirth will ensue unless Skywalker gives in to his dark side, selling his soul to the devil, like Dr Faustus and Robert Johnson before him.

Sadly the force is not strong within Christenson's acting radar. Not that he is helped by a clunking script and arthritic dialogue, a lamentable failure by Lucas, who should give dramatic heart to his hi-tech storytelling. No one expects Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet or Hamlet, but epic dramas demand more than hurtling special effects, and in the wake of Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Lucas is looking like a busted old hand.

Only in the finale, the inter-cutting of Padme giving birth and Anakin's transformation from burnt human shell to black-cloaked avenger, does he marry style with emotional content.

Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi (the old Alec Guinness role) has none of the strength of Guinness and his hair is absurdly never out of place; Frank Oz's Yoda is the comic stooge once more, mangling the English language with his prophecies; Samuel L Jackson's Mace Windu flits by; and R2-D2 and C3-PO are less busy than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet. As ever, the computer-generated backdrops are impressive, but so what, The Revenge of The Sith does not locate the Dark Side, so much as a black hole.

Updated: 16:38 Thursday, May 19, 2005