by Matt Barr

Decent descent (no spoliers)

You can imagine George Lucas doing a crayon drawing of Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader, much like his rendition of Anakin and Padme falling in love in Episode II. Revenge of the Sith isn't that. It's a dark, complex, troubling and real story. It's surrounded by gorgeous CGI and little discordant idiocy like C3PO's "What a drag!" line from Clones. Obi Wan Kenobi becomes a full-fledged hero of the series rather than a prop biding his time and growing old till he can counsel Luke. Ian McDiarmid is terrific as Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine. Even Natalie Portman's character is ever so slightly more realistic.

It's a wholly satisfying "end" to the story. No, it's not as good as the first couple. Ranking the movies from best to worst would probably go like this:

V
IV
III
VI
I
...
II

Better than Return of the Jedi? I think so, and I'm fairly confident it's not novelty or the immediate afterglow. There are no Ewoks, just marauding Wookiees (which you can see in the trailer, no spoiler), and Anakin's fate playing out is simply more compelling than Another Death Star, Only Bigger.

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