"George Lucas"

2005 · George Lucas · 140 min · Sci-Fi

Revenge of the Sith is the prequel trilogy's strongest entry by a wide margin, delivering the tragic fall of Anakin Skywalker with genuine emotional power and the franchise's most impressive lightsaber choreography. Clunky dialogue and an uneven first act keep it from true greatness, but Ian McDiarmid's Palpatine and the devastating final thirty minutes make this the darkest and most dramatically satisfying prequel.

1999 · George Lucas · 136 min · Sci-Fi / Adventure

As a visual and musical achievement, nothing in Star Wars had reached higher than this before, backed by one of the greatest film scores ever composed. Its final lightsaber duel and podrace sequence are legitimately thrilling set pieces that hold up decades later. But wooden dialogue, uneven performances, a politically dense plot, and the deeply divisive Jar Jar Binks kept it from reaching the heights of the original trilogy. It's the most argued-about Star Wars film for a reason: the highs are real, and the lows are impossible to ignore.