The prequel series reaches an epic conclusion with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. This film takes a completely difference direction from the previous two. Instead of centering on various political workings, Lucas decides to structure his prequel series finale with series of battles and action sequences.

The story starts off with the rescue of Chancellor Palpatine, who, with dramatic irony, is pretty much known to the audience as the Sith Lord behind all the current chaos in the galaxy at the moment. Count Dooku is quickly vanquished single-handedly by Anakin, which is surprising given how powerful Count Dooku was played up to be, but serves to build and hype up the true, raw, untapped power within Anakin. Dooku overall seemed to be a poorly conceived character that was conceptualized last minute before being thrown into Episode II. There are even outlandish fan theories that Jar Jar Binks was actually supposed to be the main villain of Episode II, but due to pushback, Lucas had to come up with another villain and threw in Count Dooku to the script last minute.

As the plot progresses, Lucas seeks to tie up various previous plot points in order to allow for the development of the central conflict. I found General Grievous’ death to be very entertaining and actually quite fitting, as he wasn’t killed by the brute strength or skill of Obi-Wan, but rather by being shot by a pedestrian blaster. However, during all this conflict and action, we begin seeing Darth Sidious’s real plan come to fruition. His manipulation of the powerful Anakin culminates in Anakin’s betrayal of Mace Windu and full embrace of the dark side, becoming Darth Vader. His turn may have seemed sudden, but was actually due to years of frustration with the Jedi ways, his infatuation with pregnant girlfriend Padme, and subtle manipulation at the hands of the wiser Sith. Some criticized this aspect of the plot, feeling as if Anakin’s turn to the Dark Side was much too sudden and not well thought out. However, I felt as if Lucas expressed and foreshadowed this fittingly, and the problem with the storyline had more to do with Hayden Christensen’s horrendous acting rather than the concept itself.

The revenge of the Sith comes to life with Order 66, and all of the Republic’s clones turn on their Jedi commanders, opening fire and slaughtering all but Obi-Wan and Yoda. The long sequences of political manipulation finally come into play, and it is clear that Palpatine had been planning for this moment for a long time. However, Obi-Wan and Yoda stage the Jedi’s last gasp, and come close to ending the Sith once and for all. Frankly, I was quite disappointed with Yoda’s fight with Palpatine. I felt as if Yoda was hyped up so much as an amazingly powerful Jedi, but really ended up being overwhelmed fairly easily by the stronger Sith lord. Conversely, I felt that Obi-Wan was actually going to get completely destroyed by the stronger and angrier Darth Vader. However, Obi-Wan engages in a long and strategic lightsaber battle against his former apprentice, ultimately winning on an ill-advised lunge by Vader.

Padme gives birth to Luke and Leia, setting up the events for Episode IV, and Obi-Wan and Yoda go into exile, but Darth Vader lives, albeit with severe injuries. All in all, though lacking in a lot of plot and character development, Episode III made up for it with gripping action and solid special effects. It effectively established a backstory to the events of the original trilogy and opened up new avenues of though on the original trilogy and theories to consider.