Perhaps the best way to summarize the Star Wars prequels is by snatching a bit of dialogue from The Empire Strikes Back, the best movie of the Star Wars series. If one were to combine the first two prequels, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, and set them next to the final prequel, Revenge of the Sith, you could paraphrase the dialogue as such: “Those were our last hope.”

“No. There is another.”

Or more succinctly: This was the Star Wars movie I’d been waiting for.

Certainly Revenge has its problems. It only approaches the solid movies that Empire and the original (now called A New Hope) are. It is again CGI heavy, just like Clones and Menace. It is that reliance on heavy visuals that sometimes gets in the way.

There are layers upon layers of image in Revenge, with barely time enough to take it all in. The speed of each scene makes it nearly impossible to get your bearings visually. The best example for me was the opening space battle. Billed as being bigger and better than any other space battle in the Star Wars series, it falls flat because of sheer visual overload. For sure the fight between the Separatist and Republic capital ships is beautiful, but you never get a second to really take a look at what you are seeing. That works well initially but after three or four minutes of such a rapid fire pace, it becomes less interesting.

Pacing is also again a problem. After the opening battle the movie drags a little in setting up the final confrontations. Certainly many of these scenes are necessary, and Ian McDiarmid (Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sideous) shines in these scenes, radiating subtle evil. But some of the scenes end up being repetitive, especially between Anakin (Hayden Christiansen) and Padme (Natalie Portman).

Dialogue remains at a cheese level, but it’s at least better contained than either of the two prequels. What’s more, Portman and Christiansen have some real chemistry this time. That helps eliminate the cringe factor a bit. There are still moments where the dialogue sounds like something from a junior high student’s diary, but at other times the actors are at least able to improve the situation.

(MAJOR SPOILER WARNING) Portman's probably the weakest of the main actors in the bunch. Her death scene is almost laughable, but she has a minor part really. She's only around to contrast Anakin's fall and give birth to the twins. (END MAJOR SPOILER WARNING)

What Revenge does extremely well, however, is introduce the first real dose of evil since we saw Darth Vader stride defiantly into the hallway of the Blockade Runner back in 1977. That evil does not come in the form of the much-hyped General Grievous, but rather in the subtle, diabolical machinations of the man who would be Emperor.

McDiarmid is sinister and sweet, vicious and tender, in his prodding and seduction of Anakin. His Palpatine uses truth and lies to prey on Anakin’s weaknesses. Finally we have a dark evil that is a worthy opponent to the Jedi. He’s certainly devious, and we finally get the plot payoff we’ve been waiting for with regards to his manipulation of the Republic.

What’s more, we finally get to see the Jedi as they should have been. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) in particular shines. Again, as with Portman, he and Christiansen have a chemistry. For the first time in the prequel trilogy, we truly see a relationship between master and apprentice. That’s significant because it makes Anakin’s betrayal all the more heartbreaking. McGregor has been mostly useless in the previous two movies. It makes me sad because this is what we should have been seeing throughout three movies, not pointless senatorial debates or fart humor.

There is a scene on Mustafar, after Padme confronts Anakin, where Obi-Wan and Anakin set up their duel. There is real emotion in both Christiansen and McGregor’s voices. It continues throughout the duel, which many fans have been waiting a couple decades to see. It’s a subtle fight really, long and drawn out but not over the top. Obi Wan and Anakin have a moment towards the end of the fight where the pain is evident in Obi Wan’s voice. It’s the part from the trailer where Obi-Wan screams, “You were the chosen one!” to Anakin. The betrayal is fresh and harsh, and Obi-Wan heartbroken. Again, this is the payoff but it makes you wonder what could have been had the actors been better used from the start.

The betrayal of the Jedi is particularly well done. This is where the movie gets to be its darkest, especially when Anakin, after storming the Jedi Temple, encounters a group of youngling Jedi in the council room and slays them. Again, there is real evil in the movie instead of lame villains that seem straight out of a cartoon.

Christiansen does especially well here. He shows Anakin as confused, even after agreeing to be Sidious’s apprentice and destroying the Jedi. He’s torn. The best part of it is that Sidious uses lies and the truth, and the Jedi compromise Anakin. By the middle of the picture he’s ripe for the picking. He doesn’t truly descend into evil until the end during the duel with Obi-Wan.

The movie certainly doesn’t answer every question, and stumbles sometimes. There is a lot of heavy-handed symbolism in the photography. And yet, even with some lame plot lines and characters, like General Grievous, the movie shines when it focuses on the relationships between the characters that many of us were expecting to care about as fondly as we did the original trilogy’s characters.

It’s enough of a payoff and enough of a ride to end the series on a high note.