Q'n'D Review: Episode III

At last, George Lucas has made another Star Wars movie.

While Episode I was much maligned and bashed by the majority of the world, I thought that it at least felt common in tone with its roots, and was at least decent, even though it wasn't even close to actually being a Star Wars movie.

Episode II was a dreary slog through dreadfully dull dialogue and uninvolving events, saved by a two minute Yoda fight scene. Coming as it did two weeks post Spider-Man, it looked particularly weak - and not at all like a Star Wars movie.

But Episode III...somehow, this time, they got it right. From the exciting and inventive action to the character development (Anakin's turn, ham-handed in the earlier films, is more subtle and involving this time) to the always-impressive effects and the nifty ways of sewing up loose ends that many viewers wouldn't have noticed even if they hadn't sewn them up ("Have the protocol droid's memory wiped."), this film looks, talks, acts and feels like a Star Wars film should.

It isn't perfect (the advance notices you've heard about the movie being "the best of the whole saga" are the excited shouts of fans overreacting to a good film - it still isn't the equal of any of the originals, IMO), but it's closer than either I or II ever got, and on its own merits, it works wonderfully well as a movie. No matter what you think about the first two films in this prequel trilogy - or even if you haven't seen them - Episode III is worth it.

Believe the hype.