Revenge of the Sith

So it’s over and done with. We come to the heart of the matter, the backstory falls into place and we have closure.

Revenge of the Sith is the best of the prequels, and I think, the only one that really needed telling. It’s self-conscious, as we might expect, and not quite as much fun as the last three. But in all, rather good, with the insidious and the inevitable corruption of young Skywalker. There are no let-outs, no doubt at all that it’s a choice he definitely makes, not something he’s boxed into. Interestingly, there’s a tiny pause at each point in the story where you can see the fork in the road. As when he discovers Chancellor Palpatine is the Sith Lord. The lightsaber is alight in his hand, the Chancellor is standing with his back to Anakin and stiffens in half-anticipation of an attack that never comes.
Or when he stops Master Mace Windu from killing the Chancellor. When the Master is the one killed instead, remorse to acceptance of his new allegiance is but a minute. He is seduced truly and surely by the dark, and crutch-excuses of needing to save his wife fall away as he attacks her in anger and leaves her fallen, forgotten as he battles his master.

Not much chemistry between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman; I remember being happier with the emotional depth of their feelings in The Attack of the Clones, which had little else, not even the promised attack. In another instance where the tale doesn't plumb required depths, Obi Wan sees security holographs of his pupil destroying younglings – it is a moment that he has been in denial about and yet knows in his deepest heart as inevitable. The narrative skims over with platitudes from Yoda and off we go to clash lightsabers again.

The construction of Darth Vader was fascinating as gleaming metal comes down to enclose broken man. That’ll teach you about face value.
And I loved Portman's clothes and her hair.

Finally, one nugget.
Anakin: “If you are not with me, you are my enemy.”
Obi Wan: “Only a Sith thinks in absolutes.”
Wooooo hoho.