"Join me, Padmé and together we can rule this galaxy."

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2005)

Yes, we are supposed to look at the movie we've just seen and decide whether the casual movie goer will enjoy it or not. But in this case, I'm going to go with a big "who cares" to that idea. This is the film made for those who have interest in the Star Wars story. This is the film that people who have even a passing interest in the characters we first met 28 years ago will want to see. A person plucked off the street, never seeing any of the first 3 movies, may not get Revenge of the Sith, but those who have invested any time into any of the Star Wars movies will need to see this film. The two hours fly by, leaving me wanting even more, possibly because there a few more scenes I would have loved to see, but mainly because I was so immersed into the story that I just wanted the movie to keep going. Who cares about the love story dialog (yes, some of the lower moments of Attack of the Clones come back in cringe-inducing scenes), the action and storytelling scenes more than make up for it. Unlike the previous Star Wars films which open on scenes of a single ship flying through space, Revenge of the Sith opens in mid battle, as Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christiansen) are chasing down the dastardly General Grievous (the wheezing voice of Matthew Wood) who has kidnapped the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Senate, Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). A great looking action sequence to the film gets us right into the action, and Star Wars fans will immediately recognize prototypes of TIE fighters chasing down prototype X-Wings. R2-D2 plays a familiar and amusing role during the first 20 minutes as the helpful little droid. After the rescue mission, Anakin meets up with his secret wife, Padmé (Natalie Portman) who has big news: she's pregnant. There were gasps in the audience I was in after it was revealed who she was about to bare, but for those who paid attention to Return of the Jedi, there's no surprise at all. The rest of the film plays off the fact that Anakin had dreams of his mother dying just before she did in Attack of the Clones, as he begins to dream of his wife dying. Anakin's quest to save his wife is what sends him down the path to the dark side, ending with him becoming Darth Vader. Back in 1977 when Star Wars (now known as A New Hope) first came out, we thought Darth Vader was just pure evil, but after Revenge of the Sith, there is depth, there is humanity, there is some sympathy in Darth Vader. So much is added to the three movies that come after Revenge of the Sith. Sadly, this will probably be the final Star Wars movie (at least that's what George Lucas says), just when the story becomes the most interesting. There was a lump in my throat watching the final scenes, as Anakin succumbs to the dark side and I realized this was it. Perhaps some of my feelings came from the fact that The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones added so little to the story and Revenge of the Sith was just so good by comparison that so much more could have been done. This movie also gave Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) something to do, and he does it well. We also finally hear from Senator Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) who plays a larger role in the story. The movies emotional pull reaches a peak when Darth Sidious initiates Order 66. Without giving much away, we see the pure evil that exists inside of Darth Vader and the unsuspecting end of several characters from the two previous films. When we see Yoda (Frank Oz) fight the Emporer (Palpatine gave himself that designation) and Obi-Wan fight Anakin, cross cut beautifully by Lucas, the six film saga is complete, everything had lead up to that point. We knew the first time we saw Obi-Wan in A New Hope we knew there was more to his relationship with Darth Vader, and here we see it. George Lucas has completed his story with the strongest chapter since The Empire Strikes Back. So does this mean we never have to watch Attack of the Clones again?