10 years have passed between the end of Episode I and the beginning of Episode II, and our main characters have changed significantly. Obi-Wan is now an experienced Jedi Master while his young apprentice Anakin has grown into a feisty and powerful Jedi knight. Former Jedi Master Count Dooku is the new villain, who has organized a separatist movement that threatens the safety and stability of the Galactic Republic.

A main plot point of Episode II is that it ends up splitting Anakin and Obi-Wan for much of the film, as each pursue their different interests. Obi-Wan investigates the production of a clone army and the mysterious bounty hunter Jango Fett while Anakin revisits his family and slaughters those who hurt them in a fit of rage. Anakin also develops a romantic relationship with Padme. This relationship leaves a bad taste in many viewers’ mouths because of the huge age difference between the teenager and the flowered senator. Hayden Christensen’s poor acting combined with the awkward dynamic between him and Natalie Portman result in a romantic relationship that is not very convincing.

Aside from this, Episode II focuses more on the other Jedi Masters in the Jedi council, including powerful Jedis Master Yoda and Mace Windu. After Obi-Wan is captured after discovering a separatist meeting led by Count Dooku, Yoda and Mace Windu along with the daring Anakin and Padme lead a clone army to rescue Obi-Wan and crush the separatists. Anakin and Obi-Wan intercept Dooku as he is trying to escape, leading to a short-lived lightsaber duel. Count Dooku easily dispatches Anakin with the first display of Force lightning, then injures Obi-Wan. Anakin reengages and is ultimately overwhelmed and gets his hand chopped off. It is disappointing to see Anakin and Obi-Wan, who have been training for so long, to get defeated so easily. However, it fits in, as Dooku was Yoda’s former apprentice and has clearly mastered the more powerful dark side of the Force. Just as our two heroes are about to be struck down, Yoda appears and engages Dooku. The two battle to a stalemate, and Dooku escapes. Yoda’s feeble appearance is quickly dashed, as he displays a remarkable show of athleticism and agility, utilizing jumps and flips to engage the bigger Dooku. For Star Wars fans, it is amazing to see Yoda in action after seeing him at the end of his life in the original trilogy. Previously, we were only aware of Yoda’s deep knowledge of the Jedi ways and how he trains Luke to become stronger physically and mentally, but his days as a warrior were long past during the time of the Empire. We were therefore left to only imagine his potential as a lightsaber dueler.

The escape of Dooku, however, seems like a major flaw in the movie. It reflects a certain ambivalence of director and writer George Lucas towards the character. The trend of the new series seems to be to introduce one Sith lord and have him be defeated by one of our Jedi heroes, but Lucas seems to have an affinity for Dooku for no reason at all. Dooku is not a very interesting character and could have easily been killed off by Yoda at the end, but they choose an underwhelming end to his character. What a disappointment.

Overall, Episode II continues the deeper dive in the politics of the Galactic Republic and sets the stage for a dramatic finish. However, I feel Lucas tends to get too cute with introducing complex characters and storylines that ultimately do not mesh well together. He has the opportunity to make things right, but ends up ruining much of it with unsatisfying conclusions.

The original trilogy was so good, so engaging, that it left Star Wars fans wanting more. When making the original trilogy, Lucas had already conceptualized the prequels, and he begins the first leg with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The prequels tells the backstory of Darth Vader and his days as Anakin Skywalker, a promising young Jedi Knight as well as Obi-Wan Kenobi’s rise to the ranks of a Jedi Master. Episode I focuses on Anakin as a young boy and Obi-Wan as an apprentice to a wise and legendary Jedi Master, Qui-Gonn Jinn.

The entire prequel is incredibly different, focusing much more on the traditions of the Jedi and the various politics and inner workings of the Galactic Republic. Its characters are less iconic, but are fresh and new. A young Obi-Wan Kenobi is played brilliantly by Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson provides and equally solid performance as the wise Qui-Gon. The apprentice-master dynamic between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon is very profound and important to the movie. One notes that Obi-Wan, as an inexperienced apprentice, displays much of the same qualities Luke does: capriciousness, overconfidence, and rashness. Qui-Gon mirrors the old and wise Ben Kenobi of the original trilogy: knowledgeable, patient, and calculating. The main villain is a mysterious Sith lord and his apprentice, Darth Maul, who is probably the coolest character in any Star Wars movie. With a menacing, demonic appearance and wielding a double bladed lightsaber, Maul undoubtedly strikes fear into the average viewer.

However, the movie completely flops on other major characters. Jar-Jar Binks is hands down undeniably the worst character in all of Star Wars. His odd manner of speaking and clumsy demeanor is meant to be comic relief, but the entire thing comes off as simply childish, and completely unfunny. Another character that I believe was underwhelming was Padme. Padme was definitely not Natalie Portman’s best effort. Throughout the entire prequel series, she suffers from poor acting, cliche lines, and sub-par character development.

The plot of Episode I is much more complicated than the plots of either of the three movies from the original trilogy. This is due to the deeper exploration of trade conflicts within the Galactic Republic and the Sith’s role in corrupting an otherwise working government. Our Jedi heroes jump from planet to planet and environment to environment to investigate occurrences. It is quickly established that the Jedi are a sort of peacekeeping core designed to help the Republic carry out its policies and investigate evil. With all the power of the Jedi and their abilities with the Force, a plot hole quickly emerges. How is it that all of these Jedi are incredibly powerful with the Force, yet are unable to detect threats? The Force, which is not completely explained in the original trilogy, is largely inconsistent in the prequels, leading to various plot inconsistencies.

Several scenes stand out in this movie, first, Anakin’s talent as a driver and pilot is expressed indirectly in his freedom race. In this sequence of events, Qui-Gon shows his prescience by picking Anakin, the youngest racer in the field, to win the race and his freedom from the lifeless planet of Tatooine. The other vital scene to this movie is the climax fight between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon against Darth Maul. The growth of Obi-Wan as a fighter is fully displayed, but the key part of this sequence is the anger Obi-Wan channels to defeat the much stronger Maul after he slays Qui-Gon. This is a recurring theme in Star Wars that the dark side and light side of the Force are not mutually exclusive, much like how a character may not be completely good or bad.

Overall, the movie suffers from an overly complex plot but benefits from invigorating action scenes and improved special effects. The characters are not a staple of the movie, but drive the plot effectively.

As the epic conclusion to the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi seeks to wrap up the plot in an exciting and unpredictable way as well as settle the existing internal conflicts within the series’ main characters. The movie faces the daunting task of accomplishing a happy ending in a plausible sequence of events after Episode V leaves Han and the rest of the rebels in shambles.

Fittingly, the movie starts with the three core characters, Luke, Leia, and Han, achieving their daring escape from the hands of Jabba the Hut. In this sequence, we see that Luke has once again increased in his raw Jedi powers while also seemingly acting more under control, making calculated decisions rather than acting impulsively. Additionally, Carrie Fischer’s Princess Leia is epitomized by her scene strangling Jabba with her own chains while wearing her gold slave bikini. It symbolizes her, as a woman, breaking the chains of the oppressive patriarchy around her. It’s satisfying to see Leia be herself as the independent and wild woman she is.

Darth Vader still serves as the main antagonist of the film, but Lucas focuses more and more on the evil Emperor, giving him more dialogue with Vader and foreshadowing his future involvement with Luke himself. Now that Luke and the audience know that Vader is in fact his father, Vader now possesses and added complexity to his character, and it begins to feel that he may be losing his grip on the dark side of the Force. The audience wonders weather he has it in him to full embrace the dark side by destroying his son when the time comes.

Before this huge question is answered, however, the rebel alliance must face the threat of the construction of the second Death Star. They formulate a plan to scrap together the remaining rebel fleet, disable the shields on the planet Endor, then destroy the Empire and the still under construction Death Star in one final attack. However, Vader and the Emperor have used Luke, who is still mentally inferior to the stronger Force users, as a trap to lure the rebel fleet to its destruction, as the Death Star is in fact already fully operational.

The massive battle ensues but an even bigger individual battle occurs internally in Luke as he struggles to resist getting turned to the dark side by Vader and his Emperor. Luke realizes that this isn’t a physical battle, but rather a mental one. Physically, it is a lose-lose situation. The only way he would be able to overcome Darth Vader is to use the power of the dark side, but if he were to not give in, he would be destroyed by the Emperor. Script wise, this is a brilliant, as just a physical defeat of Vader and the Emperor would have been extremely problematic in terms of plot consistency, as Luke is clearly physically weaker than the two antagonists. Luke, while getting tortured by the Emperor, instead taps into a conflicted Darth Vader, pleading with his long lost father to return to the good. In this classic moment of Good vs. Evil, the former epitome of evil chooses to turn to the good at the power of fatherly love. Lucas proves that no power is stronger than love, and Vader sacrifices himself to kill the Emperor and save Luke.

The Emperor’s death turns the tide for the rebels fighting outside, exhibiting the parallel between the individual battle of Luke vs. Vader/Palpatine and the large scale actual war between a revolutionary rebel alliance and an oppressive empire. With such implicit parallels, the Lucas achieves a film that is pleasant to the eye and the mind.