And the best action scene of the decade is...

For a full twenty-three minutes, George Lucas throws at us everything we could ever want in a Star Wars film. A claustrophobic and suspenseful massive spaceship dog fight. Jedi masters running, jumping, and slashing at everything in their path. A terrific and plot-driven light-saber fight smack-dab in the middle. A fiery crash-landing to freedom. All that, plus successful comic-relief from R2D2 (his fire trick brought the house down at our midnight showing), dialogue that actually sounds authentic and snappy, and a chemistry between Obi-Wan and Anakin that actually feels genuine. It's as if, knowing full-well what darkness and despair the audience was about to go through, Lucas made sure that the prologue was as much sheer Star Wars fun as he could possibly manage... one last time. I know it's heresy, but Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is actually my favorite Star Wars film of them all (relax nerds, The Empire Strikes Back is second). And that gloriously gonzo go-for-broke first reel and a half is a big part of why.

Scott Mendelson