Revenge of the Star Wars Franchise!

Rating: 9/10 (29 May 2005)

(Some minor spoilers ahead)
It was with mixed emotions that I viewed Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the concluding chapter of my beloved Star Wars franchise. I was ecstatic on the one hand to see how the story arc would conclude; on the other hand I was sad since it was sinking in that this was the last time I'd be able to take time off, wait in line all day, and view the midnight premiere of a Star Wars film.
While I cannot shake off the lingering melancholy stemming from this being the last time 'round, I can take solace in that Revenge of the Sith ties up the story in a very well-executed manner. Yes, I had a few quibbles (some things that don't make sense to a hard core fan such as how quickly Anakin pledged his new allegiance to the Dark Side) but in the end this is just so much nitpicking. Overall Return of the Sith was terrific.
I actually liked Episode I, The Phantom Menace and Episode II, Attack of the Clones but, like so many others, felt they weren't as good as Episodes IV  VI (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, respectively). My main complaints were the silly antics of Jar-Jar Binks and Anakin Skywalker in TPM and the overly fake CG look of AOTC and the silly comments of C-3PO during its ending scenes. Fortunately, Revenge of the Sith suffers not from these afflictions. The look of the film is much improved over AOTC. There are very few lines in ROTS that would make you cringe and no wantonly silly ones.
Instead, what there is plenty of is great lightsaber fight scenes, poignant scenes involving the Jedi, great acting from Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine and another character many suspected him of being all along). The biggest thing that ROTS has going for it stems from these strengths  it really feels like a Star Wars film, much more than the other two chapters of the Prequel Trilogy. In fact, while it's part of the Prequel Trilogy along with Episodes I and II, I think ROTS almost should be instead grouped in with Episodes IV  VI because of the feel of the film is much more reminiscent of those.
ROTS does a very good job of laying the groundwork for what is seen in the Original Trilogy, wrapping up the Prequel Trilogy, and just being a good movie on its own. I highly recommend it.