SW:EIII The one I've Waited almost 30 Years For

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2005)

I'm not one of those who is ready to declare Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith the best of the bunch. It is a good movie, better than most of the others but to me it was much better as satisfying my years of curiosity than being a good movie if left to stand on its own.
If this was the only movie I had seen of the 6, I would really be confused. It's value is that we finally find out the why or how of so many questions that Episode IV created in 1977 - It was 1977 wasn't it? I know 28 years is a long span of time but I still believe George Lucas did the right thing by starting with the fourth installment rather than the first. We would never had seen Han, Luke, or Leah if that had happened.
This movie will make very little sense to those who have not see EIV but that is all they have to see to enjoy it. Want to know whys of the darkest villain of all time? This will take you there. Want to know why Luke in EIV is living in a desert climate on the far reaches of some system? You find out. But you have to see the movie all the way through because, while it has a more than usual predictability quotient, it takes the whole story to appreciate it.
After seeing "Sith" I left the theater saying, "Good but not to the level my friends and family who saw it before me say it is." There is a great deal of action. In fact the whole movie is a weave of action scenes that you burst into right out of calm quiet pathos filled scenes. The one thing I felt about the editing was a "rush." As suddenly as an action is suggested, you are in the middle of it. After the first scene, the movie spends very little time in outer space. System to system and planet to planet travel just happens - you have to use your imagination.
George Lucas is very focused on two major threads in this story that weave with each other and he cuts to an absolute minimum anything else. Maybe he learned something from EII? While the action scenes are a lot of fun to watch, I did feel after a while that they were looking a lot alike. But there are enough scenes that are inventive and they are scattered throughout the movie to make it quite exciting.
If children can take the action and the violence, the rest of the film is very safe and tame for the family. It is not Kill Bill by any means but limbs may fly at a moments notice and you want younger people to be prepared and able to handle that.
Finally, there are few real surprises for the Star Wars fan, just an exciting unfolding of a story that finally puts the last important pieces into the puzzle so that it makes sense - a satisfying ending.