Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

The origin story of the infamously heavy-breathing, black-caped villain Darth Vader isn't uninteresting, but neither is it innovative. Anakin's motivations are conventional (even if he doesn't bother discussing his decisions with Padmé, not showing his very capable and intelligent partner much respect). In fact, the movie's most compelling angle is that Anakin is so young that his thinking is immature: Afraid of loss, he can't accept what happens and so changes the shape of the entire galaxy essentially to get his way.

Like the other Star Wars movies, Revenge of the Sith is filled with great special effects: Though the futuristic urban sets look rather flat, the space-fighting scenes are very video-gamey. Yoda is especially well rendered here, and a scene in which Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) rides a giant lizard and battles enemies in a multi-legged mechanical vehicle is lively and sometimes funny but also involves violent fighting, which might worry some younger kids. As much as this story focuses on Anakin's dilemma, the secondary characters are often more compelling, especially Obi-Wan, again revealing patience, wisdom, and charisma, and Padmé. Palpatine is convincingly vulnerable just before he becomes utterly fearsome, but Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and Senator Organa (Jimmy Smits) have very little to do, embodying the predominant problem in the Star Wars franchise -- too much emphasis on technical displays and "universal" plotting, and not enough attention paid to character details.