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Last wednesday was the day for me: Star Wars episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released in theaters. As an immense fan of the Star Wars universe, I was looking forward to it a great deal, despite having mixed feelings about Episodes I and II. Episode III was different, however. It managed to satisfy, and in many ways, too.

Every Star Wars fan has seen and loves the original trilogy, and in that lies a big problem for Lucas: for many fans, the original trilogy is like a first true love: no matter what happens, it'll never leave your heart again and nothing will quite live up to it.

But, George Lucas felt up to the challenge and wanted to finish his story, which he so eloquently started more than three decades ago. And so it came to be that Episodes I, II and III were made.

For the sake of reviewing more properly, I will discuss contents of the movie that can be considered as minor spoilers. If you have not yet seen the movie (it's only been four days) and wish to remain completely spoiler-free until you do, it would be wise for you to stop reading right now. If not, carry on, but this is my only warning.

Star Wars episode III: Revenge of the Sith ties the end of Attack of the Clones to A New Hope, the start of the original trilogy. It tells the tale of how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader, something we all already knew was going to happen. We see how Palpatine reveals himself as Sith Lord to Anakin and shortly thereafter becomes the Emperor, changing the Republic into his own grand empire. To finish it off, Lucas rounds it up and prepares everything for the start of A New Hope, leaving us with a pretty satisfied feeling.

Or maybe I should just say me, as not everyone appreciates Revenge of the Sith equally. The big difference lies in focus, however. There are good parts and bad parts in this movie, and your overall experience depends greatly on which parts you want to focus on. First, the bad parts.

Throughout the movie, many of the scenes between Anakin and Padmé don't come alive. In Attack of the Clones we chemistry between them, albeit not a lot. In Revenge of the Sith, however, their dialogue has been written so poorly that their lines are almost ridiculous, and what chemistry we remember from before seems to have gone lost forever. It doesn't help that Natalie Portman's acting wasn't what it could have been - we've seen her do better, that's for sure - but in her scenes with Anakin, Hayden Christensen performed even less impressive. He did much better when doing scenes with Ewan McGregor and Ian McDiarmid. It's hard to tell, however, whether Portman and Christensen's acting were simply mediocre, or that the writing was just too unnatural.

Then there were moments were you just have to ask yourself, why did they not realize that? In particular, the moment where Obi Wan's legs get crushed by a large and heavy piece of metal. Sure, a Jedi has a more resilient body than a normal man, but he shouldn't have been able to walk and jump around as if nothing happened only two minutes later. Why was there no one on the set going hey mr. Lucas, that part with the metal? No way that the audience will accept that, man.

Of course, at this point it's already leaning towards nitpicking, because really, if after the corny dialogue you're taking apart a single scene's logistical problems, you're nitpicking. So what does that mean? Well, this movie is actually quite good, and here's why:

For one, it does its job perfectly: it fills the gap between Episodes II and IV, and that's all it needed to do. All the important scenes are well-prepared and well-executed. But there's more to Revenge of the Sith than key scenes of high quality. Much more, even.

From the very first moment, the movie is action-packed and rich in detail, filled with impressive and inspiring CG shots all the way through. Anyone looking for that special Star Wars-feeling will be very pleased with this movie, as the environments are simply breathtaking. Paired with a musical score that truly belongs in a Star Wars movie, and the setting is definitely complete.

Beyond the setting, you can enjoy the sublime acting by Ewan McGregor, who has done a most remarkable and impressive job of changing from a just-mature padawan in Episode I to a (truly worthy) young Alec Guinness in Episode III. McGregor and the make-up artists have done a great job: you can just see him age a few more years and look just like Sir Alec Guinness.

When it comes down to it, there is enough in Revenge of the Sith to make it a truly worthwhile Star Wars movie. It has its flaws, but they will only get in the way of a good 2,5 hours if you focus all your attention on them. Doing that means you will miss all of the great parts that the movie still has to offer, such as the tremendous way that this timeless saga has come to an end.

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