Hayden Christensen may not be fit to lick James Earl Jones’ shiny black metal helmet (and the fact that he transforms into him, voice and all, by the end of the movie is somewhat less than believable) but the third Star Wars prequel was still, actually, pretty good. It’s no excuse for the others, though, George! Despite maintaining the cringe-inducing dialogue uttered in the rest of the trilogy, this was far and away the best of Lucas’ films released in the later Nineties/early Noughties, and it even managed to feel appropriately epic with scenes like the “birth” of Darth Vader. The acting was also somewhat improved, with Ewan McGregor managing a more-or-less credible Alec Guinness impersonation for the first time in the series (although since Guinness was famously phoning it in on the set of Star Wars that might not have been the best example to try to imitate). All in all, a definite step up in quality from the rest of the series which so besmirched the infinitely superior originals.
