Well, I will say that Lucas certainly saved his best for last in this second trilogy. To me he pretty much, with a few small exceptions, tied every loose in between the first two movies and the next three. Clearly Lucas took his time with the story and also the direction, getting the best performances from almost everyone in the cast. He also gave everybody what they wanted, a story that involved Yoda much more than any movie, even "Empire Strikes Back." Without a doubt this is a must see at the movie theater and one that will make it in your movie collection. I will sat that I am sad that this movie has arrived because it puts to an end a story that started when I was six years old, and for many people in my generation, it was a part of our young lives.

This story picks with the Republic fighting the war with the Separatists. Anakin, played by Hayden Christenson (Shattered Glass,) has gained the favor of Chancellor Palpatine, played by Ian McDiarmid (Sleepy Hollow,) much to the consternation of the Jedi Council. The council members are suspicious of the Chancellor as are some members of the senate, including Padme, played by Natalie Portman (Leon: The Professional.) Also, Padme informs Anakin that he is soon to be a father of a child. All of this information is overwhelming Anakin and is starting to crack. The Chancellor is using his trust with him to plant seeds of doubt about the Jedi way. The Jedi Council does not help the situation by asking Anakin to spy on the Chancellor, something that is against the Jedi way. Even Padme asks Anakin to use his influence to try and get the Chancellor to stop the war. But the turning point is Anakin's dreams that show Padme dying during child birth, determined not to allow this too happen he goes to Yoda to ask for advice but is told that he must accept death as a natural solution, all life must end. Not wanting to here this he turns to the Chancellor who offers him the chance of saving Padme's life if he joins him.

George Lucas has written four of the Star Wars movie's on his own. The second trilogy and the first one in the first trilogy, he had help with "Empire" and "Jedi." Of the four, the screenplay for "Sith" is by far the most complete and entertaining of the four movies. The plot twists and turns are exciting and provide logical explanations for how stories ended and began. I found that he created an excellent story for the turning of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. Anakin basically becomes a pawn of everybody, the Council, his wife, and the Chancellor, and as he is crying out for help, he is starting to break down, there is no one there to catch him and he eventually turns to the dark side. I would say that he turned to the dark side because of his friends and his wife, and not so much the Chancellor taking advantage of his feelings for Padme.

I feel that good writing makes you want to root for an ending that you know will not happen yet makes you think there is still a chance. Many times in this movie, even though the audience knows that Anakin will turn, the writing is so good that you believe almost to the very end that there is a chance that Anakin will come back to the good side. This is what separates this script from "Titanic." "Revenge of the Sith" makes you think, and hope that Anakin changes while "Titanic" you can't wait until the damn ship sinks. This is the difference between good writing and poor writing.

There are many scenes that are memorable. Two of the most amazing of them is the fight scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi at the end of the final act, and the montage of scenes that show the killing of the Jedi Knights around the galaxy. It's just George Lucas at his finest combining his sense of action and drama that makes his movies good.

The acting is much better in this movie than in the previous two, leading the way was Ian McDiarmid. McDiarmid created two distinctly different characters inside one character. His command of his voice, turning on his Darth Sidious voice at perfect times for use when twisting Anakin to the dark side made his performance. His physical performance too added to the duality of the character that was Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious. McDiarmid clearly led this cast and in my opinion should get an Academy Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Both Hayden Christenson and Ewan McGregor gave their best performances for this movie. For McGregor, it was his best attempt at acting in a character that first was performed by Alec Guinness. He seemed to me to have finally nailed the sophistication of the character that is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Christenson was helped by Lucas's writing to perform Anakin perfectly for this movie. I thought that his emotions were real and the choices he made in showing this character go down the dark path were great.

The one actor who did not add anything to her character or to the movie is Natalie Portman. I know she is a great actress, but I do not think she every clearly captured what her character was about. She had the strong willed politician down, but I she never had the romantic character right, except for a few scenes in the "Clone Wars." Her pivotal scene, when she discovers that Anakin has turned to the dark side, did not come off as a loving wife who has lost her husband, but as a teenager who lost a prom date. I won't completely fault her because the writing in the movie was at its weakest in her lines during this scene, which is ironic because the writing for Anakin's character was probably the best and delivered the same by Christenson.

Another important element to the movie was the score written by Star Wars musical creator, John Williams. His music is legendary and always on a plane above other composer's but in this movie his music was perfect for every scene. His music adds to the two scenes that I said were my favorite earlier in the review. The music in the saber fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan was perfect in that it captured the essence to me of the scene, which goes back to where I talk about what makes a good script. The music composed by Williams for that scene gives you the audience the feel of desperation that the fight has but also that little glimmer of hope that Anakin will lay down his saber and stop the fight, something you know he can't and won't do. Williams' music also captured the sense of sadness and despair during the scenes where the Jedi's are being ambushed and killed. Very sad music, also very good.

The special effects were again spectacular. The opening with R2-D2 fighting some of the Droid soldiers was hilarious and you could not tell that it was computer generated. The final battle scene Yoda vs. the Emperor and Anakin vs. Obi-Wan is great and will probably earn Lucas another Academy Award® for Special effects, Sound Editing, etc. My fear is again Lucas work will be taken for granted and he will not be given the awards that he has deserved because Hollywood is too stupid to think that someone else's work, talking about the year The Matrix won, is better than Lucas.

I could go on and on but it is safe to say that I liked this movie. Judging by early returns, everybody, for the most part will see this movie at least once in the movie theater as you should. It has a few, small, and I mean very small, story issues relating to the 1st trilogy that weren't explained, but if you have hang-ups on that, then you should not be allowed to own any of the movies and your brain should be erased of all memory regarding Star Wars. Go see the movie, embrace it and enjoy. I do not think that we will see another story put together so well in my life time, and hopefully that will be a long time. It may be corny, but I will say it anyway, may the force be with you.

Brian - the Naked Gun

Ian McDiarmid made this picture for me. His performance was simply awesome. I can't get enough of the way he says, "Your anger makes you strong." I am convinced, there is no one else in the world who could match the caliber of this man's contribution to the "Star Wars" saga.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?