Story Progression

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 2005)

Episode 3, like expected, tied up all of those loose ends that us Star Wars geeks were worried would be forgotten. 'Sith' acted as a bridge from one world to the next, connecting two time periods and two stories.
Okay so I'll admit it, i liked the Pod-race in episode 1, but i do agree with most people in saying that 'Menace' did look like it could have been a separate movie series entirely. But, in some ways that is a good thing, Lucas new what he was doing with the story all along, for the most part; he created a new world, an old world, before the corruption of an evil empire and the control of a dork lord of the Sith, and he was right in doing that. Of course GL does get sidetracked with the advancements in CGI, (and sometimes makes me wonder if he would prefer not to use actors at all and just have voice overs for CG characters), but hey, hes human. So i looked past his obsession with green screens and focused on the character development, and I was pleased.
When Episode 2 came around, we were all itchy for a glimpse into the future of Vader and the Empire(with the inevitable battle between Obi-wan and Anakin in the back of our minds). Lucas did a good job developing characters and moving the story along at a fast pace, and he did that without revealing too much just yet, leaving the best for the last episode.
So now Anakin and Padme are secretly married, Ani has a new arm and his future as a master jedi is being questioned. Now, Anakin kills Dooku, which in my opinion sealed his fate, to become a sith lord, rather than a jedi master. Palpetine is now untrusted by the entire jedi counsel and Anakin is torn between the two powers, and the strong but somewhat secret relationship is revealed between Anakin and the future emperor.( which leads me to another fun side note...When Palpatine tell anakin of the dark lord who could control the medichlorians and in fact create people and stop them from dying, i think he was telling us that he (palpatine) learned this art, killed his master, and then conceived anakin using the medichlorians, which would explain the questions asked by Qui-gon in episode I) Lucas definitely got episode 3 right, creating a great story, even better cahracters, and did so with better CGI. He tied up every loose end, from the Obi-wan Anakin fight, to the smaller things like when Obi-Wan picks up Anakin's light Saber( a prelude to when he gives it to Luke), He remembered everything, he got rid of mace windu's character, which sadly enough had to be done, in a very exciting and satisfying way. ( In doing that he also preluded to the fact that Mace Windu himself was in fact close to turning to the dark side, his light saber skills are close to Sith-like, and he was on the verge of killing the emperor himself before Anakin killed him.) Lucas wraps up the movie beautifully, with an unbelievable battle between palpatine and Yoda, and an ever better one between Obi-Wan and Anakin. Then we finally see it...we see how anakin actually turned into the mangled half robot we originally saw him as. Obi-Wan cut of his legs and Anakin almost completely burned to death. Anakin becomes Vader, dawns the suit and the mask, the children are split up, and the cut scene of the movie ends like 'A new hope' began, with a broken republic and the shadow of a dark empire leering over it.