Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

All the "Star Wars" movies will continue to entertain us for many years to come. They were grand fun, and this last one's a corker.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A pop masterpiece.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie grabs us from its heart-pounding opening sequence and pulls us inexorably along its trajectory with the grip of the last gruesome act of a Greek tragedy. Its fascination is not what happens but HOW it happens.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The darkest, most operatic, and technologically richest "Star Wars" movie to date, "Sith" is grim, stirring entertainment and a nearly complete vindication of everything its creator has been saying for six years about where the series was heading and what its final shape would be.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

For my generation, Revenge of the Sith is a brilliant consummation to a promise made a long time ago, far, far away, in a galaxy called 1977.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Lucas is a major figure, and Revenge of the Sith may be some kind of historic achievement -- the first movie in which it is fully impossible to tell where flesh ends and digital paint begins.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The final episode of George Lucas' cinematic epic "Star Wars" ends the six-movie series on such a high note that one feels like yelling out, "Rewind!" Yes, rewind through more than 13 hours of bravery, treachery, new worlds, odd creatures and human frailty.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Emerges as the best in the overall series since "The Empire Strikes Back."

The New York Times Dana Stevens

This is by far the best film in the more recent trilogy, and also the best of the four episodes Mr. Lucas has directed. That's right (and my inner 11-year-old shudders as I type this): it's better than "Star Wars."

USA Today Claudia Puig

Even for non-fans, Revenge of the Sith is engrossing, and fans of the series will likely be over the moon -- and into another galaxy -- with this film.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Only now can we truly step back and admire the full tapestry that it has taken George Lucas and his ILM wizards nearly three decades to weave.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Episode III has more action per square minute, I'd guess, than any of the previous five movies, and it is spectacular. The special effects are more sophisticated than in the earlier movies, of course, but not necessarily more effective.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Once Palpatine's machinations set the cogs in motion for the creation of Vader, and the Clone Wars start getting bloody, Sith commences to cook in a way that no Star Wars movie has since "Empire."

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The real deal, an often awkward but nonetheless terrifically compelling high-stakes human drama.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Far and away the best of the Star Wars prequels (tough chore, that) and also holds its own with the hallowed films of the original trilogy.

Empire Colin Kennedy

Star Wars really does begin here.

Newsweek David Ansen

Lucas manages to turn the audience's familiarity to his advantage: like a jigsaw puzzle whose final form has always been known, the fun is in discovering how the last pieces fit.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Arguably the darkest episode in the entire series (and the first to carry a PG-13 rating) the visually stunning "Sith" is also the fastest-paced and most accessible.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

For all its doom and gloom, Revenge of the Sith turns out to have a happy ending after all, giving Star Wars the send-off it deserves.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

On the action-adventure level it's a sure-fire delight for fans, a punchy entertainment for average sci-fi buffs, and a colorful rocket-ride for moviegoers who just want a good time on Saturday night.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Two prequels' worth of scene setting pays off in the politically resonant Revenge of the Sith.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Though Sith finally finds some life in the old saga, was it worth it in the end? Did we have to go through all that to get back where we began?

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The battle sequences and lightsaber battles are gripping, and for every scene that doesn't deliver the goods, there's another that hums with surprising intensity.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The most energetic of the prequels, the only one at all worth watching. But that doesn't mean it is without the weaknesses that scuttled its pair of predecessors. Quite the contrary.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The one figure in Revenge of the Sith who taps the true spirit of Star Wars is Ewan McGregor: With his beautiful light, clipped delivery, he plays Alec Guinness' playfulness, making Obi-Wan a marvel of benevolent moxie.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A vast improvement over the previous two outings, but still and all, it's no "Star Wars."

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Though it starts slowly, it lumbers toward greatness in the last third and restores him [Lucas] briefly to the top of his class.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

And still the dialogue is astonishingly feeble, the acting unforgivably wooden. To paraphrase Yoda, the only creature with ­truly human dimensions ever since Harrison Ford's cowboy-mechanic Han Solo departed the galaxy: Bored I am.

Slate David Edelstein

What a shock when George Lucas finds his footing and the saga once again takes hold.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The scenery, effects and balletic, iconic combats are perfectly wonderful, but there's an emotional black hole where the hero should be.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Revenge was supposed to be the one that really socked it to us, about Anakin's almost biblical fall from grace. But the movie never rises to its powerful occasion.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Is it enough to make us like a thing we used to love? For most, that rekindling of an old flame will be good enough.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The greatest story ever has finally been told. Or, if you prefer, the damn thing has come to its merciful end.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

For the casual viewer who feels like maybe all the Sith hoopla is worth checking out, well, it's like tuning in to the season finale of "24" without having watched a minute of its lead-up episodes.

New York Magazine Ken Tucker

Lucas is a brilliant technician but a poor philosopher, and his lurchingly thought-out rendering of futuristic politics prevents the entire series from achieving the greatness to which it aspires. (You don’t make anything this big, for this long, without aiming for the planet Masterpiece.)

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Until the last half-hour, when Lucas actually does establish a emotional connection between the landmark he created in 1977 and the prequel investment portfolio he laid out in 1999, the movie is one spectacularly designed letdown after another.

Village Voice Ed Halter

Even setting aside the clumsy inconsistency of its interior logic, Sith is an underachievement of escapist entertainment.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The movie drags.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

I suspect this picture is pretty close to what fans were hoping for, and for their sake, I'm glad it's markedly better than the two that preceded it. But Revenge of the Sith is still crap.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The general opinion of Revenge of the Sith seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones." True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion.