Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) ***

Rating: 7/10 (7 June 2005)

(Possible Spoilers)
I thought REVENGE OF THE SITH was the best of the three STAR WARS prequels, and delivered everything I'd hoped for. This is the chapter where we come full circle and get to see how Anakin Skywalker becomes completely seduced by the evils of the Dark Side and transforms into the personage of Darth Vader. As Anakin, Hayden Christensen was much better in this than he was in ATTACK OF THE CLONES, and all those eerie moments where he turns into a misguided villain with hatred in his eyes were strongly rendered by him. Even Natalie Portman was better than usual as Padme, and though it took her three films to appear as more than just a pretty new Christmas ornament, I thought her love scenes with Skywalker were pretty decent.
I have been championing Ewan McGregor's dignified acting as the younger Kenobi in all of these first three episodes, and he's as classy as usual here. However, the finest performance comes from Ian McDiarmid, in the role of the dubious Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.
The last half is better than the first, and fulfills just about all expectations, as far as fastening all the series' loose threads into once concise whole and paving the way for the 1977 original (forevermore to be known as A NEW HOPE). SITH also benefited from occasionally strong (for this saga) material, such as what happens to the younglings. Hilights include more action-packed light saber fights (one of them being a re-match with Christopher Lee's Count Dooku), and the fleshing out of the little Yoda character, who gains our heart and has now become one of my favorite STAR WARS characters. *** out of ****