Despite the continued hypocritical hate from so-called "fans," George Lucas soldiered on in concluding the long-anticipated Prequel Trilogy with Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, whose opening crawl indicates the capture of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine by droid General Grievous, which occurred in Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars shorts series, now noncanon, and hasn't officially been depicted canonically in the post-Disney purchase franchise continuity. The film opens proper above the Galaxy's capital ecumenopolis (a city-encompassing planet for you ignorant folks) Coruscant, which the Separatists are attempting to siege, with Anakin and Obi-Wan plowing through to the ship where the Chancellor is being held.
Aboard the ship, the Jedi rematch Count Dooku and rescue Palpatine, Anakin crash-landing the ship on Coruscant and reuniting with Padmé, who tells him the news that she's pregnant. Anakin has a premonition of her dying in childhood and hopes that he doesn't lose her like he lost his mother. Chancellor Palpatine appoints him as his representative to the Jedi Council, but while the Jedi there accept his appointment, Mace Windu doesn't grant him the official title of Master, which outrages Anakin, and is somewhat awkward, and in my opinion, dialogue like, "We do not grant you the rank, privilege, or voting power of a Master" would have been far better.
The Chancellor invites Anakin to the opera, telling him the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise, who could immaculately conceive children using the Force, and somewhat affirms the Force as having a biological basis. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan confronts General Grievous on Utapau, battling the droid who is able to wield multiple lightsabers even without the advantage of the Force. Back on Coruscant, Palpatine has a talk with Anakin that leads him to discover that he's the Sith Lord the Jedi were looking for all along, which was a bit obvious from the beginning given that the mysterious guy with the hood over his eyes looked an awfully lot like the Emperor as he did in the Original Trilogy.
Anakin tattles to Mace Windu about Palpatine being the Sith Lord and is told to stay out of the Jedi's attempts to arrest them, but the Chancellor resists with his trusty red lightsaber and Anakin breaks his word and goes to the Sith Lord's rescue. Windu is the last Jedi alive to face the Chancellor alone, with Anakin torn between whom to save, the Sith Lord getting his face melted as he resists with Force Lightning. Of course, the choice is obvious to Anakin, who is officially christened as Darth Vader and true to his name, short for "invader," goes to the Jedi Temple per Sidious' orders to lay down the law to the ancient order, which he has every right to hate since they kept them from his mother.
At the same time, Palpatine executes Order 66, which prompts the clone armies, genetically engineered to blindly obey his will, to turn against the Jedi generals, reflecting the betrayal of the Knights Templar once upon a time. As a result, the stranded Obi-Wan has to fight to survive, and Yoda escapes the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk with the help of none other than Chewbacca. Kenobi and Yoda ultimately rendezvous with Alderaan Senator Bail Organa and go to the Jedi Temple to recalibrate the signal commanding the now-endangered Order to return to stay the hell away.
Palpatine sends Anakin to the lava planet Mustafar to kill the Separatist leaders and gives a speech at the Senate where he births the Galactic Empire, Padmé commenting, "So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause." Obi-Wan finds out about Anakin going postal at the Jedi Temple and then tells Padmé about his plight to the Dark Side, which she denies at first, thinking her husband to be incapable--except that he had gloated about slaughtering the Sand People on Tatooine all those years ago in Attack of the Clones, so yes, Senator, he was indeed capable.
Padmé leaves Coruscant to visit her Sith husband on Mustafar, and Obi-Wan stows away, with the couple reuniting, Anakin insisting he's powerful enough to overthrow the Emperor. Upon noticing his old master reveal himself, Anakin Force-chokes Padmé into unconsciousness, following which is his climactic duel, preceded by Kenobi's insistence that "only a Sith deals in absolutes," which contradicts Yoda's wisdom "Do or do not; there is no try," so apparently, the Jedi deal in absolutes as well. As for the diminutive Jedi, he handles Emperor Palpatine back on Coruscant in an equally-cool battle.
Back on Mustafar, Obi-Wan ultimately gets the high ground in his duel with Anakin; being the terrible teacher he was from the beginning, he maims the newborn Sith Lord when he could have just, you know, easily disciplined him with Force lightning, but no, he can't do that, since it's a Dark Side ability. Kenobi steals Anakin's lightsaber and leaves him to burn, but luckily, Palpatine comes to the rescue and brings him back to Coruscant to put him in his iconic life support armor. Obi-Wan takes Padmé to an isolated moon to give birth to Luke and Leia, and in her dying breath, believes there is still good in her husband.
Leia is given to the royal family of Alderaan and Luke to his stepaunt and stepuncle on Tatooine, with that ending scene being inarguably the most beautiful in the franchise both musically and visually. Overall, Revenge of the Sith is a great conclusion to the Prequel Trilogy, with all the signature positives of the franchise, including endearing characters, John Williams' soundtrack, and excellent visual effects. It's also among the most quotable films in the series, although there are the typical negatives including all the stuff that occurs off-screen, the cringy portions that occur especially in the first half, and a few questionable plot elements that include the mentioned inconsistencies. Regardless, it's definitely one of the high points of the Skywalker Saga and warrants a watch.
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| The Bottom Line | |
| Inarguably the best of the Prequel Trilogy, but definitely not perfect. | |
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