The new and last movie opens with Anakin and Obi-Wan on a rescue mission to recover the Chancellor Palpatine, whom has been kidnapped by Count Dooku and General Grievous of the Separatists Droid Army. It feels pretty good, the two Jedis working more as a team and the relationship of master and student has matured. Count Dooku is defeated, Grievous escapes and the further part of the rescue of Palpatine is pretty breath-taking. When it's all over, everything is back to normal. Or is it?

Padmé awaits Anakin in the shadows and has news. She is pregnant. Anakin is thrilled, but soon his nightmares return...of Padmé dying in childbirth. This firmly opens him to vulnerability to the Dark Side. But the war still continues and Chancellor Palpatine gains more power and names Anakin as his special liaison to the Jedi Councill. This is of course a double-edged insult, since the Jedis won't make him a master and his new position puts him, a novice, over the Council. Anakin tries for a time to be in the middle, but soon finds Palpatine's (the hidden Sith Master of course) subtle seductions too much. He begins to turn with dark acts done under the good intentions of saving Padmé and bringing order and peace to the galaxy.

Welp, I really enjoyed this third movie. Lucas pulled his slide into letting us down out of the jaws of defeat. It has plenty of action and blistering SFX (though sometimes they overwhelm the viewer, at least this one) and it moves pretty damned fast. My only complaint is some pretty bad dialogue, just stunningly bad. And while there was a lot of excitement about General Grievous, I found him to be a real throwaway character. And a warning, there is of course the end of the Republic, the Jedis and plenty of deaths, including children and it's pretty depressing. Well, I will see it again of course, get the DVDs and such. A near-perfect 5 out of 5 and a welcome redemption of the Star Wars franchise...

Till next time,
OGRE3K