The best of them all

Rating: 10/10 (22 May 2005)

This movie is by far the best of the prequels and is as good as or better than episodes 4-6. While I have never been a Star Wars nut, I really enjoyed this film. It is literally a Shakespearean tragedy set in a science fiction world. If episodes 1-6 had never seen the light of day, Revenge of the Sith could easily stand on its own as an engrossing character study of a great warrior hero who slowly and tragically descends into the implacable grasp of evil. The irony of it all is that Anakin is driven to such depths of iniquity out of love for his wife and his instincts to protect her. The evil Palpatine is a combination of Othello's Iago and MacBeth's Lady MacBeth, drawing Anakin into his evil web of treachery with a combination of lies, flattery, and empty promises. We cannot help but feel sorry for Anakin as he, his judgment clouded by recurring nightmares of his wife's death, allows himself to be manipulated into becoming Palpatine's protégé, and, eventually, sees all that he has held dear vanish before his very eyes.