Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith; The circle is complete (for now)

Fans all over the world were excited when George Lucas announced he would be making a new trilogy which focused upon the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader but after the release of Episodes I and II, even the most ardent faboy wondered if any of the new trilogy would come close to matching any of the original films. Revenge of the Sith was their only hope.

As the Clone Wars draw to an end, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker finds himself at an impasse. His loyalty to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is questioned by his fellow Jedi Knights and their apparent lack of faith in him and his abilities leads to his seduction by Palpatine to the dark side of the force. Anakin is then consumed by his new persona, Darth Vader, and becomes the ultimate evil in the galaxy.

The film was chock full of wonderful special effects and CGI work, but two sequences stood out above everything else. The first was the epic space battle which opened the film. Even when one was following the main characters of Anakin and Obi-Wan in their respective ships, it was hard not to become distracted by the other layers of action happening all around them. That battle was topped only by the climatic lightsaber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan on the volcanic planet of Mustafar. This was the lightsaber battle fans had been longing to see and writer/director George Lucas delivered with more than ten minutes of the most insanely cool swordplay ever committed to film. That battle alone was worth the price of rental. And while the prior two prequels were remembered for their excellent special effects/CGI work and dreadfully wooden acting, Revenge had not only the special effects, but also some effective acting. Ian McDiarmid brought an evil glee to his performance as Palpatine and Ewan McGregor excelled once again as Obi-Wan. One of the most emotional scenes, Padme’s confrontation with Anakin on the planet of Mustafar, was perhaps the finest in all of the prequels for it dripped with actual emotion. The film was everything a fan of the series could have hoped for, complete with the births of the heroes of the original trilogy; Luke and Leia, and of the most feared villain in the galaxy, Darth Vader. There will be critics who bemoan the fact that this film had stilted acting, no real emotion and only good special effects but don’t believe them. This one delivered the goods on all accounts

Grade: A-