Star Wars: Ranking Every Film From Worst To Best

With Revenge of the Sith, Lucas brought his prequel trilogy to a powerful, pathos-laden finale and brought the entire saga full circle.

So much of the work Lucas put into Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones was planting seeds, both narratively and thematically, that wouldn't really come to fruition until this film. On paper, that seems obvious, but the power of these payoffs is immensely satisfying in the film proper. The evolution of Anakin and Palpatine's relationship, the Clones embracing their role as enforcers of the Empire, and most importantly the severing of the connection between our lead trio. For events that audiences knew had to be coming, Lucas handles them with grace and poignancy, which makes them all still so deeply affecting.

If George had been continuously trying to one-up himself in terms of how he built he setpieces throughout the prequel trilogy, then this film sees him utterly succeeding. Because from the opening setpiece, blending together space battles and lightsaber fights and everything that is so quintessentially Star Wars into one sequence, to the high-opera of the Anakin and Obi-Wan duel on Mustafar, Lucas outdoes himself in every regard.

John Williams turns in his best work of the prequel trilogy, no small feat. Portman, McGregor, and Christensen all deliver their best performances of the trilogy. And to top it all off, longtime underdog Ian McDiarmid gets to go full-hog as Palpatine in a way that is just delightful.