The Force is....Sort of with this one....

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2011)

So finally after sitting through two disastrous films that bare no resemblance whatsoever to the original Star Wars trilogy, it finally seemed with Episode 3, the final part in the epic Star Wars saga, that George Lucas had sat down with his producers and said 'alright, we're gonna cut the fat out and leave in the muscle'. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (a clever title that harks back to what may have been the original title for Return of the Jedi) definitely cuts out the fat of the first two films, however that loose skin still remains.
The concluding part to the tale of Anakin Skywalker sees the young Jedi, now a mighty warrior, along with his fellow Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor reprises again) starting off the film flying through a huge space battle trying to rescue the Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDarmid) from the evil General Grievous and Count Dooku. Once returned from battle, the clone wars intensifies to its final battle and the tragic turn to the dark side for Anakin Skywalker finally draws to a close.
I've always been fascinated with the idea of Anakin turning to the dark side, despite it being set up so poorly in the previous films, the execution is much better, however there are some flaws with it. When Anakin has pledged allegiances to Darth Sidious, he still parades around as a Jedi and doesn't fully embrace the yellow sith eyes until much later. If Anakin is now an alleged Sith Lord, he should be proud of it and not hide it from everyone. Stupid and annoying. However, the seduction and promise of greater power speaks volumes in terms of undertones. Star Wars has always done a great job of defining right and wrong (the original trilogy at least) but the simple message of taking a shortcut will lead to evil and working hard will gain you respect I feel is a great message to fans and people of all ages.
Other flaws with Episode 3 include yet more CGI, however time was spent it seems to make this CGI look better than in Attack of the Clones, but even still, we are treated to barely no live action sets, and without it, the film loses a feeling of realism and occasion. The acting nearly overall is pretty dull once again, Ewan McGregor of course being the biggest disappointment. When he learns of Anakin's turn to the dark side, his reaction is so unconvincing that it seems as though maybe Obi-Wan never liked Anakin anyway because it clearly doesn't look too big of a deal to him. Another problem with Episode 3 is the secondary villain, General Grievous, the reptile/alien/robot/cyborg thing that leads the droid army. His screen time is so sparse and his dialogue so indecipherable that there isn't much interest in the character to invest in.
However, the big triumph in this film is the devilishly evil performance by Ian McDarmid as Darth Sidious (The devil of the Star Wars mythos) who tempts Anakin to become his young apprentice with the promise of saving Anakin's wife, Padme from death in childbirth. Of course, these are all lies, and Anakin must pay the price for making his deal with the devil by having to spend an eternity in the figurative hell, or the Darth Vader suit. All of this thanks to this great performance, Ian McDarmid has you eating out of his hands.
Another great spectacle in this film is the great lightsaber battles. I think all Star Wars fans anticipate every lightsaber battle in all the films with excitement as some of Star Wars greatest moments have happened during the duels. The climax of the film sees Anakin and Obi-Wan battle it out simultaneously to Yoda and Sidious while the superb 'duel of fates' score plays makes for a terrific conclusion and one heck of a final lightsaber fight.
In the end, the film finishes on a note that looks somewhat familiar. The death star is being built, Anakin gets all Darth Vader'd up and Obi-Wan leaves the baby Luke Skywalker with his family on tatooine, looking out into the sunset, re-creating one of Star Wars most famous images of looking out to the future, looking out to a better place. So even though evil has won the day in this film, there is a small hope in the form of the future, in the form of Luke Skywalker, and thank god for that, because that means the prequels are over!