By now I’m sure the majority of Star Wars fans have already seen the new and final installment of George Lucas’s enterprise and formed their own opinions of the film. There have been theories as to how and why the first two episodes of the new trilogy, 1999’s The Phantom Menace and 2002’s Attack of the Clones have been international smashes at the box office, yet for the most part canned by the critics. I suppose this is because the original trilogy, (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) had been made for almost anyone because everyone grew up with it, the casual enthusiast and hard-core dress-up-like-Obi-Wan fan alike, and they were the premier of science fiction movies.

These new ones have been far more technical and elaborate than the old ones with Luke, Leia, Han, and the gang, and seem to be designed for the fans, not the critics. I myself am not much of a fan, because I didn’t even know what an Ewok was until someone else informed me after I referred to them as "those teddy bear things," and I don’t consider myself much of a critic, although I can be critical.

Episode III, however, is one movie that I think both the fans and the "what-the-heck-is-a-Gungan?" people will enjoy. It has the basic essential elements of a Star Wars movie-- long and intense light saber fights, some dog fighting in spaceships, and "use the Force" dogma, but there’s an element that wasn’t included in the first two episodes of the new trilogy, maybe even in Hope and Empire as well. These movies lacked a sense of empathy or even remote understanding for the antagonists, whether it was Vader, Boba Fett, or Palpatine, which made the movies black and white, basic, and two dimensional. In some cases, that’s okay for Star Wars. No one really needs to feel compassion for Darth Maul, a demon Sith lord that cares more for killing than bunnies and gardening, but in Revenge of the Sith a sense of commiseration is necessary, for the audience is seeing the demise of one of the movie’s heroes with Anakin Skywalker’s conversion to the Dark Side of the Force.

I personally didn’t see Anakin as a hero but more of a problem child for the movies in Episode I and II, but this character gets more interesting in Episode III. Jake Lloyd, the little kid in Episode I, was disappointing as a nine-year-old blonde slave with nothing going for him but building junky pieces of metal, for he lacked a sense of presence as a baby Darth.

Hayden Christensen improved the Anakin rep remotely in Episode II, but maybe that’s because he’s. . .not ugly and showed a bit of a James Dean side as he drove that speeder down a lonely desert.

But back to the movie. "Revenge of the Sith," titled for the successful seductions of Senator Palpatine, a power-hungry Sith lord masquerading as a powerful politician, (played by a scene-stealing Ian McDiarmand) who has hired Anakin Skywalker, Jedi knight and secretly married hunk, to represent and spy for him on the Jedi council.

Anakin Skywalker, who most of us should know turns into Darth Vader, the shiny black helmet guy in the original trilogy, is an incredibly talented yet unpredictable ally for the Jedi, the selfless peacekeepers in the galaxy of a long time ago and far, far away. Anakin takes on the mission out of friendship of the old guy, and gains a chair on the Jedi council, which is a pretty big deal, I guess. But Anakin’s mad that he doesn’t get to be a Jedi masta. So begins the mind games that take place by Palpatine. The sinister lord clouds the already anxious Anakin with stories and lies that begin a hunger for power in the young Jedi.

Anakin is at first resistant to Palpatine’s schemes, who is quite desperate to gain a new apprentice with Anakin’s talent and reckless personality, for the Sith lord has been loosing his goons like flies on these Jedi scum. Palpatine’s former tyro Darth Maul, who we meet in Episode I, was lacerated in twine by a clean shaven Obi-Wan, and Count Dooku, (Who called in Christopher Lee?) an elder fallen Jedi in Clones, gets the scissor treatment to the neck in the very beginning of Episode III by Anakin. The violence and gruesome images in this movie are far more relentless and brutal than in all of the former movies, and it deserves its PG-13 rating, but it is fairly mild compared to other movies that have also earned this category. Little kids, such as seven and eight year olds, may be better off seeing Madagascar. I hear that is good.

What really makes Anakin susceptible to conversion is his past, present, and possibly future issues with the rules he has broken of the Jedi order. As most of you know by now, Jedi aren’t supposed to be getting any emotional attachments to anyone because it can jeopardize the whole selfless warrior look, causing weaknesses, misjudgment, and danger to both the Jedi and the involved. Anakin broke this rule when he fell in love with Padme Amidala, a senator played by Natalie Portman who has less screen time and (thank God) less dialogue, and we learn very early in the movie that she has a bundle in the oven. (Actually, she has two loaves getting made; Luke and Leia. Scandalous.)

So, while Padme’s off curling her hair, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin’s teacher, mentor, friend and clothes consultant, is also out of range to aid our young hero, for Obi-Wan is assigned to snuff out a spidery droid lovingly named General Grievous, leader of this clone-war thing. This Grievous guy is bad news, because he is second in command to the mysterious guy leading the separatist movement from democracy, who we all know is Palpatine, but they don’t know that. Obi-Wan, played by Ewan McGregor, is probably the only other guy who can really deliver a line besides Samuel L. Jackson, another powerful Jedi named Mace Windu, self-titled "The Second Baddest In The Galaxy" compared to master Yoda, the frumpy little green guy. These two, along with McDiarmand, are given more lines, which one should appreciate, for the other actors, Portman and Christensen in particular, seem to have a tough time conveying their dialogue. (Who can blame them; they’re all stuck in a blue room so the computer guys can add in everything else later. These guys don’t get any interaction, and that’s probably what the younger actors really need.)

Anyway, as Obi-Wan is dealing with Grievous, Anakin is vulnerable to Palpatine’s poison. The guy has been dealing with an internal power struggle for what his own conscience considers right and wrong, and what others, the Jedi, Palpatine, and Amidala, judge as good and evil. So we see Anakin transform from the spunky little kid in Episode I into a sinister, hard-bitten and heartbroken piece of leather, metal, and a noisy respirator for multiple reasons. This is what really makes the movie interesting to almost anyone, particularly the teens out there that have no idea what is going on with the politics issues of Republic versus Separatist, (nor do they really care) because the issue of conscience and ethics is something that all of us must face, especially in English class.