Star Wars: Episode III (cinema)

The final chapter

There's only one place to see a film of the epic scale and sumptuous majesty as Episode III and that's the Odeon Leicester Square. It feels like an event from the roomy leopard print seats to the be-drizzled balcony over the square and £10+ tickets.

It's the film Star Wars fans have waited for to set up the original trilogy (which I became a fan of a few years ago - thanks, Matt) and to make amends for George's wayward episodes I & II.

While it's impressively technically stunning; it's depressingly soullessly empty. It answers the minutiae of Star Wars universe gaps but oh so mechanically, especially in the last 20 minutes. Worst of all though it fails to convince on the crucial point of Skywalker's transition to the Dark Side: it's the whole point of Episode III, if not the I, II and III story arc. Despite a better performance from Hayden Christensen it's just not a compelling downfall: it's contrived.

Natalie Portman sleepwalks, Ian McDiarmid camps it up to the point of the ridiculous but they're saved by Ewan McGregor and Samuel L Jackson impressively trying to fight their way free of Lucas's plodding, pedestrian material and unimaginative direction.

It's not a bad film: it's worse than I'd hoped, better than I'd feared. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate: hate leads to me buying episodes IV, V & IX on DVD and leaving the recent prequel trilogy on the shelf. Disappointed I am.