The fastest paced, most exciting, best character developing, and yes, best Star Wars movie, period

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2019)

I was ready for Revenge of the Sith to be a moderate step up from the last two prequels, but it was in a different league and should be compared with the epic fantasy movies of our time: the original trilogy, LOTR, the best of Harry Potter and the MCU. It doesn't try to do too much and succeeds on two major fronts: Anakin's character development and the exciting action sequences. Anakin's complete lack of character development was one of the driving factors of why Attack of the Clones was so bad, but we see a complete 180 here. He's given a much more well-rounded script and shows the struggle of wanting to become a great Jedi and seeing murkiness in whether there's a true binary good and bad as well as balancing selfishness and selflessness. His transformation is completely plausible, as you see his doubts in the Jedi and the allure of saving his wife and greater power. The political plot was extremely well done - I said I wanted lots more Palpatine, and I was not let down here. Some really interesting parallels you can draw to modern society too, with democratic people and societies acting as the Jedi and dictatorships as the Sith, and democracy falls due to their own elitism and not realizing the consolidation of power until it was too late, with too few checks and balances. The Jedi assumed themselves invincible and even when they thought there was a Sith, still didn't take it as seriously as it deserved. Anakin's descent is really well done, but other characters like Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Palpatine are also very well done, and even Padme is palatable in this one.
You can't talk about this movie without considering the epic action sequences. General Grievous is sick, the climactic cuts between the Yoda and Anakin fights were really well done, and the order 66 to tell the clones to turn were all great. No scenes dragged at all, which felt like the trademark of 6, 1, and 2. What makes Revenge of the Sith such a unique movie is that it's in a special spot in getting to tie up the trilogy and set up the original trilogy, and it does both very satisfyingly. Don't lump it in with the other two prequels - let it stand on its own as the excellent movie that it absolutely is.