Yeah, you guessed it. Yoda, the million-year-old tiny green Jedi Knight, is the break-out star of STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH. In all honesty, the previous two Star Wars installments have more or less put me to sleep -- I can't remember much except how bad the little-kid actor who originated the role of Anakin Skywalker was, the total misstep of Jar-Jar Binks, and some wacky hairdos on Princess Padme Amydala (Natalie Portman). I rented EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, watched it twice, fell asleep both times, and still don't understand what the hell was going on. But all is forgiven, Obi-Wan.
REVENGE opens with a slamming space battle as Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan MacGregor) and his apprentice, Anakin (Hayden Christensen), attack the battleship of the Clone General to rescue Chancellor Palpatine. They bring him back to the capital, where he makes no secret of his contempt for the Senate, his suspicion of the Jedi, and his admiration for a certain dead Sith Lord who mastered the Dark Side of the Force. Oh, and he seems unnaturally attracted to Anakin. Meanwhile, back at Padme's pad, we find out she and Anakin have married secretly and she's pregnant (guess she won't need "padding" now!). Scandalous! No one seems to care that the "unmarried" senator is about to pop, but apparently if everyone knew she was married to Anakin and having his kid, well, the Senate pages would be flipping. I'm not sure if it's because Jedi aren't supposed to marry or Anakin is just considered a bad catch. Anyhow, she's pregnant, he has a vision she'll die in childbirth, he wants to save her, and Palpatine swears the Dark Side will teach Anakin how; besides, Palpatine reasons, why should Anakin be good when the Jedi don't respect him anyway? Way to play on the Blond One's already paranoid tendencies, dude. We know what Anakin will do -- he's Darth Vader, after all, but seeing how he gets from cute kid bad actor to evil-but-hunky grown up bad actor Vader is what keeps Revenge of the Sith moving. And makes it kind of heartbreaking, when you realize he went down the road to Hell with all the best intentions.
Despite some clunky dialogue and hyperactive backgrounds (really, what's with the constant stream of tiny ships whizzing by every fricking window?), this Star Wars episode deftly sets up what we know as STAR WARS, but is officially known as Episode IV: A New Beginning. There's the insidious way Palpatine "convinces" [read: scares the pants off] the Senate to turn over power to him, allowing him to become Emperor. There's the sad, sad music as Anakin embraces his dark destiny and sets out to destroy the Jedi. There's the nice tiny detail of a ship like the Millennium Falcon gliding in for a landing on some set. We're introduced to Chewbacca and the Wookies. We find out how baby Luke and Leia ended up where they did, why the Emperor has such bad skin, why Darth Vader wears that giant outfit, and how Yoda and Obi-Wan went into hiding. And Yoda? Rocks. He has the best scenes in the whole movie, the ones that made the audience whoop and gave that same thrill you felt the first time you saw the Death Star blow up. Woo hoo!
Oh, sorry. The bottom line is that Revenge of the Sith is a fitting end to the Star Wars saga -- corny enough to relate to the originals, but good enough to leave you wanting to see what happens next. Even though it happened 20 years ago. That's movie magic!