The home stretch.

Rating: 10/10 (31 March 2019)

After watching Attack on the Clones, I was even more excited about the prospect of a third Star Wars movie coming out so when I went to see The Incredibles in November of 2004, I saw a short teaser for the final chapter of George Lucas's prequel trilogy, Star Wars: Episode 3, Revenge of The Sith. After seeing the trailer, I was over the moon, I was so pumped to see this movie and it was all I could think about for the next few months so once May 2005 came, my dad and I went to see the film and after 2 hours, I walked out of my local movie theater in awe of what I had just watched. Once the film came out on DVD later that year, my brother and I got the movie for Christmas and over the next few years, we watched it quite a few times. However, as I grew older and began to see the prequels in a different light, I came to see Revenge of The Sith as the only great film out of the entire prequel trilogy but in preparation for seeing Episode 9 later this year, I decided to rewatch it and lo and behold, I actually still think that despite a quite a few glaring problems, Revenge of The Sith is the best film in the entire Star Wars prequel trilogy due to it's actual effort to tell a great story rather than just be a bore fest like Attack of The Clones and Phantom Menace.
The film opens with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker leading a rescue mission to save Chancellor Palpatine from the cyborg General Grievous while a massive space battle erupts over Coruscant. Upon landing on Grievous' ship, the two Jedi locate Palpatine and duel Count Dooku whom Anakin kills The three then attempt to escape but are again captured by General Grievous but due to a diversion by R2-D2, Obi-Wan and Anakin are able to corner him but before they can attack him, Grievous makes his get-away. Anakin is able to land the war-wrecked ship on Coruscant. Anakin then reunites with his wife, Padme Amidala who then tells her husband that she's pregnant. While happy at first, Anakin then begins to have nightmares of Padme dying in childbirth. Upon discussing the issue of his wife's death with Yoda, Anakin is then summoned to Palpatine's office where the chancellor appoints Anakin to the Jedi Council as his personal representative but the Council refuse to make him a master and give Anakin a mission to spy on Palpatine, causing him to lose his faith in the Jedi Order. While visiting Palpatine at the opera house, the chancellor tempts Anakin with a story about a Sith Lord who could save people from death. Now, Anakin is torn between learning this new knowledge in order to save his wife or remain with the Jedi all while Palpatine continually twists Anakin's mind and feeds his fear.
The day of May 19th, 2005 was not a simple day for Star Wars fans as it was a day where all the pieces of the previous films would fall into place, thus closing the book on more than 28 years of movie history and lore. Fans of the series had wondered and debated about it, there had been books and stories written about it along with facts gathered and everything else for the sake of one film series that will always remain in the hearts of its fans. It's something that Star Wars has always had from its beginnings in 1977 to where it is today and regardless of how some fans may feel about the series, the saga will continue to live on in one form or another. Possibly, every person who left their local movie theater could never show or even speak about what they saw over those two hours. Happiness, anguish, teary-eyed, pure shock, mournfully leaving the theater, getting back in line to see the movie again. All these are natural when watching a film on the big screen but for some, watching Revenge of The Sith was an experience much like seeing The Force Awakens would be 10 years later.
Given how mediocre the last two prequel films had been and how this was the last move in the Star Wars saga at the time, it's not shocking that some people consider Revenge of The Sith to be the definitive chapter of the saga that Lucas created and while I consider Empire Strikes Back to be the definitive film in the series, Episode III is easily the most extreme and heavy of the prequels. It pierces every organ in the body, not permitting any air to enter the lungs, and touches hearts and souls alike. As the viewer can only watch the film play out on the screen, we are the onlookers but we can also sympathize with what the characters are going through and at some point during the movie, there's only a doom sigh as the film tells us that there is no way out. Of course, given that this is the third film in the series, it's a lot more painful and tragic than most of the other Star Wars films. Here, the Republic falls apart like a rank of baby-back ribs and turns into an empire while the Jedi Order is destroyed at the hands of their clone troopers and the face of a once noble Jedi is reduced to hiding behind a black mask and all of this encourages fear, the fear of despair and that's when the viewer begins to bit by bit understand that all of this is just part of the larger plan from the Jedi to the Emperor himself, everyone is nothing more but a chess piece in a game bigger than themselves and every word that is spoken by each character becomes a key to a much bigger puzzle that attends to the Empire and before you realize what's happening, it's already too late.
As the former student of the Light Side whispers to the Dark Lord of The Sith with anguish and commitment, he asks that he help him save his wife's life. At this moment, the hero we know as Anakin Skywalker ceases to be along with the Republic, the Jedi, and his own wife thus giving birth to Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith and the future terror of the galaxy who instills dread and panic in every living being, being driven by loathing and pain and in the eyes of something such as love is shown and the most horrific thing is that it is unavoidable. As the Jedi continue to dig themselves into a hole, the Sith are waiting for them. This is what war feels like and what pain feels like. Order 66, the clone army, The Jedi, Padme, Anakin; everything comes together here in this climatic roller coaster ride. By themselves, these issues aren't important at first glance but when they are seen together, they create a much more chaotic and problematic situation. In the span of one hour, we see everything that the galaxy has been building for centuries totally destroyed and therefore, the viewer sees both the Light and the Dark Sides come together in this battle along with the differences of each of the opposing players. Good and evil, the Jedi and the Sith, Obi-Wan, and Anakin, Yoda and Palpatine, Anakin and Padme, the Republic and The Empire. All of these various plot threads come together almost seamlessly in this epic conclusion in a way that never feels forced upon the viewer.
Another aspect of the prequel films that Revenge of The Sith improves upon is by serving as a link between these movies and Episodes 4, 5 and 6 as here, we finally see the character of Anakin Skywalker fall to the dark side of the Force and how he becomes the most badass villain in all of film history, Darth Vader. On top of delivering on what was previously shown in Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith also has the massive task of showing us how the Clone Wars ended, how a vile Empire rose from the ashes of a self-governing Republic as well as how characters like Luke, Leia, and Obi-Wan found themselves by the time A New Hope begins . Now, with all these tremendous character arches and plot trends, it's a wonder that George Lucas even made this all work but somehow, all these plot beats and loose ends manage to work well and tie up all the loose ends from the previous two prequel films without straying far from the main focus of the story: Anakin being tempted by Palpatine as well as Anakin turning his back on everything he loves and becoming something else entirely. Upon seeing visions of his wife dying while given birth, Anakin becomes desperate to save her and rather expect that death is beyond his control, he confides in Palpatine and it's from there that he begins to plant the last few seeds of dissent in Anakin's mind and convinces him that the Jedi don't respect him and that in order to understand the true power of the Force, Anakin must embrace a larger view of it which in turn makes him question his loyalty towards the Jedi even more and thus he gives in to his fear of loss and turns to the dark side.
This kind of manipulation is effective not only for the sake of the story but also for the sake of the character of Anakin and while I still find him a bit bratty and whiny here, it's easy to have at least some sympathy for Anakin here as we see everything he ever loved or cared about being taken away from him simply because of his own lust for control and power to make things the way he wants them which is a far cry from the arrogant teenager we saw him as in Attack of The Clones. At least George is trying to make us care about Anakin and how his actions affect not only those he loves but also the galaxy as a whole. The whole temptation of Anakin works so perfectly in the film and when the seeds of deception are embedded in his head, there's no turning back for our hero. It also helps that despite my strong dislike for The Phantom Menace and Attack of The Clones, I do understand what George wanted to do with the character of Anakin and how he wanted to show how a good person turns evil but sadly, the way that George chose to tell the story of Anakin's fall wasn't the best choice and left me caring very little about Anakin's journey but with Revenge of the Sith turned that around and allows us to focus our attention on the moment in the film where the camel's back breaks. Anakin's last descent into darkness shot alongside the Empire's rise to power is a masterclass in visual storytelling. The way that Palpatine seduces Anak