10 Movies One Mistake Away From Being Masterpieces
8. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith
The Almost Great Movie: The Star Wars prequels are perfectly serviceable blockbusters that receive so much hate thanks to a handful of dumb moments. But while it's impossible to say the first two come close to the original trilogy, Episode III gave it a good shot. The first film in the saga to showcase all out war, we see Anakin's fall, Luke and Leia's birth, the rise of the Empire, the end of the Clone Wars and countless other elements key to the overarching story.
The Big Mistake: It had too much to do.
And getting all those things are exactly what stopped this final prequel being great. Going into the new trilogy Lucas knew exactly where he wanted to end up, but oddly chose to spend the first two movies on tangential plots, lumbering the last film with a job too big for it to do. This isn't helped by the first hour of ROTS, which deals with plot elements entirely new to the movies. In retrospect, the prequels feel like five hours of slow build up for only half an hour of pay off. That ratio's not right.