Revenge is light years ahead

To misquote Winston Churchill, The Revenge Of The Sith is not the beginning of the end but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Nearly 30 years after George Lucas began work on a rollicking little sci-fi adventure named Star Wars, the final instalment in his trilogy of prequels finally brings the tale to a close.

In so doing, it leads the viewer right back to where it all began, like some ingenious Escher staircase (or circle of hell, depending on your point of view).

The original Star Wars trilogy, of course, has ensured Lucas a place in cinema history. But even his most ardent acolytes must have found themselves losing faith as 1999's The Phantom Menace (pure gibberish) begat 2002's Attack of The Clones (a slight improvement), and the young Jedi Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) began his painful, protracted trudge towards life as Darth Vader.

Thankfully, this one is light years better. Where the first two prequels showed us how the boy grew into a man, Revenge Of The Sith reveals how the man became a monster. It makes for an altogether darker and more juicy picture.

Plagued by premonitions of his wife's death in childbirth, Anakin is jumpy from the word go. Concerned by his behaviour, Yoda assembles the Jedi council and confesses that he might have misread the prophecy and that "the Chosen One" might not be the Chosen One after all ("Jeez, Yoda", you half expect someone to ask, "would it have killed you to mention this sooner?").

Such fears are swiftly borne out. Pressurised by enemy-within Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid), Anakin winds up betraying his colleagues. He is joined to the ranks of the Sith and granted by Sidious "unlimited power". What follows is surely destined to take up residence in the nightmares of younger viewers.

Star Wars was conceived as a ripping kids' adventure. But Episode III veers closer to The Borgias - its operatic scheming building to an especially shocking massacre.

At once kitschy and compelling, over-ripe and disturbing, Revenge Of The Sith makes you forgive Lucas's earlier indulgences and want to revisit the original three movies - if only to reassure yourself that it ends happily after all.