The obvious question comes up whenever a highly touted film arrives, why bother writing a review on this? People are going to head out and see this no matter what everyone says.

Gone are my boyhood fantasies about the glory of the Star Wars franchise. I was a kid when the original films came out so I suppose I really didn't realize just how Jim Hensonish the films were. Don't get me wrong I love Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal and such but the Star Wars films didn't feel like kids movies (at least at the time) so when this new trilogy came out it really slapped me in the face and gave me a wake up call. What was it I really liked about the original trilogy so much? Why can I not seem to enjoy these ones?

For starters I really hate, HATE CGI effects. That pretty well sums up the reason I suppose. Plus this current batch of actors have no charisma whatsoever. Do we really care if any of them die? As a matter of fact, the main reason everyone is going to this thankfully last entry into the series is to basically see director Lucas 'kill off' the annoyingly cute little kid first introduced to us in the Phantom Menace. Yeah, let's see the little kid all grown up & tortured and mutilated!

Scary thing is, that's basically the main reason anyone is still going to these movies. The kids of this generation have their own interests. Why did George Lucas target a family audience with his newest trilogy when his Star Wars audience is mainly over thirty? Someone should have sent him to at least one marketing class in his lifetime.

I've finished razzing what I've disliked about the two previous films just to set up the Revenge of the Sith. (Do we all remember when Return of the Jedi was actually named Revenge of the Jedi? ...ah, now I get it).

Fer Pete's sake it wasn't a bad film at all! Hayden Christenson who plays Anakin actually did a decent job as a baddie, because let's face it, his performance in Episode 2 was more wooden that Pinnochio's head. I really enjoyed watching Anakin slowly (but not too slowly) turn to the dark side. Hayden actually did a good job showing the inner conflict his character had & slowly justified his reasons for turning to the dark side.

The CGI wasn't as awful as the other two films. Yoda didn't look like a little green cursor bouncing around, er, at least as much anyhow.

All of the actors did a remarkable job redeeming the horrors of the first two episodes aside from Natalie Portman. I mean, after this trilogy is all said and done, who really cared about her character? I have to respect Carrie Fisher for actually bringing some meat to her role in the originals because it looks like just like most Star Wars fans, George Lucas had no idea how to treat a female character. Through three movies all we care about is that she was a future Jedi baby-makin' machine! I mean c'mon.

The biggest glaring difference that made this film far superior that the previous two were story and plot. It had one! After the film virtually the whole audience I was sitting with sat up and mumbled, I see why the first two sucked. Why couldn't he have just figured out a way to make two good films instead of two poor and one good oneÉ George Lucas had only enough content to fill two movies stretched them out into three episodes. Hence we were treated to really dragged out CGI battles & pod races. Not so in Episode three however.

Episode three whooshes by at an amazing speed sometimes making you wish Lucas would let us catch our breath. Unlike the previous two installments there was so much story left to tell sometimes I felt a little like Lucas tried to squeeze too much story into this last one and it may have detracted a bit from the film.

Aside from that though the atmosphere and sets were outstanding. It felt as if I were watching the originals again what with all the 1970's sets and costumes in the film. Hayden even had a pretty close resembling look to that of another Skywalker (well, at least his hair did).

To sum it all up. Nobody actually cared about what happened before Star Wars. Anakin's life as a child, then teenager were actually uninteresting and boring. But... We still love the origin of VADER! Just let's skip to the cruel torture part.

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12