Review – Star Wars Episode Three: Revenge of the Sith

Well, at least now it’s over. This wasn’t a terrible movie, but it was sort of poorly put together. The biggest problem is that George Lucas (back in the director’s chair on top of being the idea guy for the franchise) is faced with the daunting task of tying up all the loose ends. How does the brooding teenager Anakin Skywalker turn evil enough to become Darth Vader by the end of this show? Unfortunately his conversion moves in a series of leaps, some of which aren’t all that convincing. Some of the technical stuff comes up short, too. For example, there’s a sequence early in the movie in which Natalie Portman just looks weird, like her makeup is messed up or the lighting is way off. Overall, however, this is an entertaining production. The effects are good. The story is appropriately murky (a little long on political intrigue, but perhaps that was unavoidable). And at the end of the series we arrive back at the beginning, sort of a Wagnerian twist. If I’d never seen any of the rest of them, I probably wouldn’t have thought much of this. But I’ve been watching these things for nearly three decades now. This episode supplies the closure we’ve all been waiting for at least since Phantom Menace. Mildly amusing