Wow. I just got back from the midnight showing of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and it was incredible. No spoilers here – unless you somehow missed that this one doesn’t have a happy ending, which would mean that you’ve either been living under a rock or somehow waiting for Episode III to come out before you watched Episodes IV, V and VI.
Others have said it before, but I’ll repeat it here – Episode III is utterly tragic and heartwrenching. Lucas pulled out all the stops on this one, and for two and a half hours we’re hoping against hope, praying that Anakin will somehow come to his senses, but of course that isn’t going to happen. Lucas does an amazing job making Anakin’s fall utterly believable, and even sympathetic. The emperor is so convincing in his sale of the Dark Side that I was ready to sign up for a red lightsaber too.
I’m not going to say any more here because I don’t want to ruin it for any of you. Suffice it to say that this movie must be seen if you’re any kind of Star Wars fan at all. It’s easily the most action-packed of the three prequels, and some are even calling it the best of the six. I’m not sure if that’s true, if only because so much of it simply wouldn’t work in a vacuum, but it is a masterpiece of hybridization, a masterfully built bridge between the old trilogy and the new one, and provides an absolutely stunning amount of closure. I think everything I wanted to know or see in this one came to pass, or at least almost everything. One spoiler: there’s no explanation as to why we never see any Gungans in Episodes IV, V and VI, no throwaway line by Senator Binks on how their people would retreat underwater and never be seen again or anything of that sort. Aside from that, all the loose ends were tidied up and we can now pretty much close the book on the Star Wars saga.
Except for the TV shows. Bring on the TV shows!