When I asked the reviewer sitting next to me to sum up Revenge of the Sith, he simply said "great!" That seemed to basically be the consensus of virtually everyone in attendance at an advance press screening of the final chapter in the Star Wars saga.
There was an exuberant mood leaving the theater, as if everyone was in collective agreement that Lucas had finally done it. That he had gone out on top, with a stunning, rock-solid coup de grace. And from all the feedback I've heard from that screening, my sense of that collective mood was right.
There are no real spoilers in ROTS. Everyone basically knows what happens in Episode 4: A New Hope. We all know Anakin becomes Vader. We know Obi Wan lives and we know Luke and Leia are born. What we don't know is how Lucas weaves those story lines into the large, six-part opus and better yet, why?
No, it's not a perfect movie. There are those moments that make us cringe. Bad dialog and High School drama class acting make for a few awkward moments where you can hear audible moans and giggles in the audience, but we have come to expect this from modern Star Wars films. The upside is that these moments are rare in Episode III.
OK, get ready. Take a deep breath. No Jar Jar! Yes, you read that right. You can let out that deep breath now.
Fortunately, we have one savior to rely on for stellar acting. Mr. Ian McDiarmid as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. McDiarmid brings the elegance of an Alec Guiness back to the franchise in a knockout performance that leaves the audience riveted and exhausted. He is the lifeblood of the film.
As someone who saw the original 30 times in it's first month of release at the age of 13, I currently consider myself a Star Wars moderate. I don't have volumes of SW merchandise, nor can I debate whether or not carbonite contains enough oxygen to make it float. All I know is that magical feeling Star Wars gave me in the original 1977 release and that I'm happy to say, after a disappointing pair of prequels, has been finally restored and reinvigorated.
Here's to Mr. Lucas for giving us all something spectacular to remember for our entire lives that embodies the whole point of going to the movies in the first place, to escape and lose ourselves in another world.
