Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

 

No joke: this is probably the best of the prequel trilogy. It most definitely is my favourite of those three by a mile. 

Why? Because this is the one where everything goes to hell in a handbasket and it is glorious. 

The Clone Wars have been raging for several years (check the awesome 'Clone Wars' animated series to fill in at least some of the gaps). General Grievous is launching an all-out assault on Coruscant in order to kidnap Palpatine, but is foiled by Anakin and Obi-Wan. But more things are afoot, as Padmé reveals she is pregnant and Anakin - in true fashion - fears for her life and will do anything to save her. This is the opening that Palpatine needed.

I mean, come on: you surely realized that he was the Sith Lord, right? Right?

Through intrigue and plotting, the Jedi are now all spread out across the galaxy and after Anakin reveals that Palpatine is the Sith Lord, he wants him to be captured but Mace Windu feels that instant termination is the way to go. But this would leave Anakin without a supposed way to stop Padmé from dying and by slaying Windu his transformation to the Sith is complete. Now called Vader, Anakin is sent to Mustafar to kill the remaining leaders of the Separatists and he even cleanses the Jedi Temple of all remaining Jedi, young and old alike. 

This all leads to a massive duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan on Mustafar, nearly killing Anakin and leading to his bonding with the now iconic suit. 

So why is this one so good, especially in comparison to the other two? For starters, this one takes it all a lot more serious. The silly jokes are nearly all left behind and don't stick out like a sore thumb. The downfall of the Republic and Anakin's final descent into darkness are truly compelling, especially because he is shown not to be evil to the core, but mostly frightened and compassionate, but this is something Palpatine has handily exploited through the years. The acting feels better in this one. Sure, there still is a lot of cringy dialogue at times, but in the scenes that matter, most people do a very fine job. Hayden Christensen really does deliver, it's just in the details: a glance here, a hesitation there. It's subtle, but the more you see it, the better it becomes. 

There are several standout scenes, for various reasons. The one where Padmé tells Anakin she is pregnant is great thanks to its subtlety. The operascene is one where Ian McDiarmid gets a change to shine. He becomes quite silly once he completely turns into the Emperor, but ah well. You can't win them all, I guess? But in this low key piece, he gives some backstory and you can feel him pulling Anakin in. The battle scenes are also neat. The opening mass battle above Coruscant is exciting, but the one that feels the most fleshed out, is the final duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan. Both Christensen and McGregor give it their all and they trained so extensively that the fight is nearly all at real time speed and intensity. 

It's excellent. 

Somewhere, it's a shame that they didn't get to this level sooner, because now this one sticks out as reminding us all what the prequels could have been, but I'll take it anyway. It's heaps of fun, engaging and spectacular and the flaws that plagued the previous two outings have been seriously reduced here. It still isn't perfect, but it's engaging enough to gloss over the mishaps. And some parts are just kickass.