The tough exercise that was the 'Star Wars' prequels pays off

Rating: 8/10 (17 December 2015)

As the conclusion to the prequel trilogy, "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" is easily the best of the three. How could it not be? The whole trilogy is about Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader and how the stage came to be set for the original movies. "Revenge of the Sith" is finally the movie that does that – it gets to deliver. Payoff, payoff, payoff.
There also aren't the same highly visible blemishes in this one that there were in "Episode I" (namely Jar Jar Binks) and "Episode II" (namely the Anakin-Padme love story) – maybe because of all the payoff. There's a powerful momentum to the film that makes its weaker components almost invisible. There are definitely some cringe-worthy moments, but they are, frankly, bearable.
What's even impressive about "Sith" is that it almost makes sense how Anakin turns to the Dark Side. It works. Maybe you're not quite convinced when it happens, but there's enough logic to it that it doesn't throw the film completely off.
"Revenge of the Sith" is long. It begins with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin (Hayden Christensen) infiltrating the ships of the droid army leader, General Grievous and rescuing Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), whose screen time goes way up in this episode. Then it dives into a plot that tears Anakin between the chancellor and the Jedi council and soon the Sith's evil plan comes to fruition. Successfully, Lucas creates that feeling of knowing that a story will end badly but hoping that for whatever reason, it might turn out differently somehow.
When you think back to how judicious Lucas was in the original films when it came to lightsaber duels (perhaps this because these were complicated special effects sequences, but still), "Revenge of the Sith" is the total opposite. Any lightsaber fight you could imagine happens in this movie (one character wields four at once) and while it's a total nerd dream come true, the gratuitousness does turn the film into something that resembles a laser-light spectacular. Although the film does become more effectively dramatic in non- action sequences than the other prequels (and even "A New Hope"), there's a lot of overstatement where understatement might have been more effective.
Another thing that works in favor of "Revenge of the Sith" is the way it bridges the prequels to the original trilogy. Most obviously, it sets the stage for the world and context of those films, but it also provides depth to some of the characters, relationships and themes that emerge, like the history between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader, which will forever change the way fans view "Episode IV" and the contrast between the seduction of Anakin to the Dark Side and Luke's temptation, which enhances the climactic scenes in "Return of the Jedi."
In other words, even the most protective "Star Wars" fans will be moved in some measure by seeing the events they've only heard about unfold on the big screen. "Revenge of the Sith" taps into the magic of the "Star Wars" universe in that way and strikes some of the same sentimental chords that will evoke fans' love for these movies.
~Steven C
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