Darth Vader
© LucasFilm/20th Century Fox

Mania Grade: A-
Rated: PG-13
Stars: Hayden Christiansen, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson
Writer-Director: George Lucas
Distributor: LucasFilm/20th Century Fox

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STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH

Anyone who grew up loving George Lucas' first STAR WARS trilogy, has certainly been hyper-critical of his prequel trilogy of movies entrenched with their political diatribes and CGI-overloaded sequences (we won't even go there about Jar Jar).

Of course, you can complain all you want but for all the faults of THE PHANTOM MENACE and the occasional misstep in ATTACK OF THE CLONES, Lucas has still delivered some marvelously entertaining movies and created some incredibly original worlds we haven't seen before on the big screen.

This brings us to the latest and final chapter of the franchise STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH. In some ways this is the movie everyone has been waiting for. It's the direct link to the original STAR WARS trilogy and it also allows Lucas to finally shed some of the hokier, lightweight elements of the previous two prequel movies and really show off his Dark Side.

Unlike the original trilogy, where it was a big surprise discovering Darth Vader was Luke's father and Princess Leia was Luke's sister, the only surprise in these three modern-day films is how we're going to see Anakin turn to the Dark Side (and whether or not Lucas has the balls to continue to shove Jar Jar antics down our throats).

It's been a slow build, but in SITH we see a more confident Anakin (Hayden Christensen) who is battle-weary, and battle-scarred from years of fighting in the Clone Wars with mentor and spiritual brother Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). The film starts off with them saving Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) from the clutches of Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) only to have Anakin cross the Jedi-line during this mission. It's during this dazzling opening sequence (replete with some of the best aerial battle sequences since the first STAR WARS) and some expected and quite amusing R2-D2 heroics that you realize Lucas is on a mission to cram all his remaining ideas and goals into this last film and he's going to be unrelenting in his approach.

From there, there's not a lot of fat and the movie moves at a fast click (unlike MENACE and CLONES which both could have used some judicious editing). Anakin's secret love affair with Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) has resulted in her pregnancy. Meanwhile, she's grown disillusioned with Palpatine and his intentions, wondering if war has been the answer all along.

The Jedi counsel is also concerned and Anakin becomes a pawn between the Jedi's who feel Anakin is still too much of a wild card and Palpatine who has been grooming the young Skywalker to be his new apprentice in the Dark ways of the Force.

From here, love, betrayal, greed, and lust for power all play a hand in the demise of Anakin's soul and it gets quite grim. In fact, the last hour whizzes by as we get glimpses into the linkage to the EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE. You're enamored and also sad that the STAR WARS franchise as a theatrical entity will be no more. Now let's breakdown the good and the bad.

THE GOOD:

1) Very little lovey-dovey moments between Amidala and Anakin that torpedoed a good portion of CLONES. Their scenes together are tight and at times, Lucas wisely chooses to say things without dialogue but visually (smart move).

2) The action is non-stop. The movie doesn't let up and there isn't a clunker bit in the whole movie. The final duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin is operatic, exciting and tragic all rolled up into one.

3) Hayden Christiansen proves what an intense and solid actor he is. He came off rather stilted in the previous film but the dialogue (and no doubt direction) is what kept him from fulfilling his potential.

4) Ewan McGregor. Excellent actor. Great Obi-Wan. And since this trilogy doesn't have someone with a wry sense of humor ala Han Solo, McGregor is it. The few moments of levity and humor come from him and he sells it ten-fold. Obi-Wan wasn't the stuffy old fogy that we thought he was in the original STAR WARS after all.

5) There's very little of Jar Jar. The Gungan appears in one brief scene and he doesn't speak. You couldn't ask for more.

6) Satisfying answers to all the STAR WARS questions that have plagued us since THE PHANTOM MENACE was released. Many thought Lucas was playing fast and loose with his mythology, but he somehow redeems himself in many respects to the niggling details that make you wonder how the two trilogies link together (i.e. why doesn't C3PO and R2D2 remember what happened to them previously). There's even an adequate explanation for Anakin's supposed virgin birth and it is hardly a cop-out. In fact, being someone who really didn't like that plot detour from EPISODE I, I was pleased that it was explained away in something that fits very much in line with the story Lucas has told with all six films.

THE BAD:

1) While I loved seeing Chewbacca in the film and the wookie planet was great to witness, you have to be honest at the end of the day it doesn't propel the story and it's a thinly veiled trick to stick Chewbacca in the movie for the die-hard fans. Like I said I bought it, loved it and enjoyed it, but did it need to be in the movie? No, but it ain't no Ewok village either, so this criticism certainly is a slight one at that.

2) The occasional clunky dialogue still rears its ugly head, but as I said above, Lucas wisely chooses to tell things much more visually than he has in the last two movies letting expressions tell the tale instead of bad dialogue.

3) I really wish there was a way to make Mace Windu as kick-ass as Lando. Being a Jedi, I guess you have to be more stately, but you really want to see Jackson wax poetically with some great lines and offer up some light saber whoop-ass, but he's sadly misused once again (though he does have one moment with Palpatine that comes close to showing off what a bad mutha he could have really been in all three films).

4) Too much CGI. The simplicity of the original trilogy is that there were creative solutions to big problems, which meant practical props and sets that some times were more impressive than anything that could be done in a computer. In all three prequel movies, it's overkill with the amount of CGI that assaults you on screen. You love watching the film, but some of the beauty is lost when there's so much going on and you lose focus what the intentions of a given scene is.

Ultimately, STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH is a delight, a nice bridging gap for the two trilogies and a rousing summer adventure. It will have its detractors and people will still lament how the original trilogy rules, but you have to admire Lucas for sticking to his guns and making the movies he wanted to make. For better or for worse, a lot of us who grew up on these movies are now reliving our childhood all over again, and you know what, warts and all, I think all of us deep down wouldn't have had it any other way.