It may be the collective force of audiences across the world willing George Lucas back from the dark side, or it may be the eventual coming of age of a brainchild that was indulged for too long. From the moment the signature script starts rolling up the screen and the twin star-fighter jets of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi tear triumphantly onto the spacescape, you can sense that this one is going to be different.

Episode III opens as the Jedi duo (Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor) embark on a mission to rescue Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), the corrupt Chancellor of the Republic, from the clutches of Count Dooku and General Grievous - a half-skeleton, half-machine, who collects the light-sabers of dead Jedi as souvenirs, and uses his multiple limbs to whirl them at his opponents like an out-of-control hedge strimmer.

Outnumbered and outgunned, the Jedi make short work of the count, and deliver their charge back to the Senate via some nifty saber-play, an altercation with a lift, well-timed droid intervention and a spectacular crash landing. Their efforts to secure peace, however, are less impressive.

Since the start of the Clone Wars, young Anakin Skywalker has lost an arm and gained a forbidden wife (Natalie Portman), but it is the dynamic of his relationship with his Jedi Master Obi-Wan that has developed most. The pairing that seemed stilted in Episode II is now a partnership that crackles with life and humour: “I sense Count Dooku,” sniffs Anakin, “I sense a trap,” replies Obi-Wan. “Next move?” asks the apprentice, “Spring the trap,” says the teacher.

There is enough drama for Ewan McGregor to come into his own, and while there are still shades of the whining, petulant brat in Christensen’s Anakin, these are countered by a sensitive, confused young man, with a wit occasionally reminiscent of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo. He is plagued by nightmares foreshadowing mortal danger for his wife (although their cloying dialogue: “You’re so beautiful”, “It’s only because I’m so in love”, hardly suggests passion) and appears a fuller, more tormented hero. It is because we come to like him that his inevitable downfall has such impact.

The transformation, when it comes, is sensational, and all the more agonising because it is never absolute. Slaughter takes place in eerie slow motion, and Anakin and Obi-Wan’s epic battle, powered by the rage of betrayal, and set against a symbolic backdrop of falling metalwork, leaping flames and molten lava, is magnificent and brutal. (Fortunately, Yoda provides comic relief by buzzing around the Senate in what looks like one of Colleen McLoughlin’s velour tracksuits).

It has been remarked that if George Lucas could, he would choose to make a Star Wars movie without any actors in it at all. That would be a mistake. After two questionable disappointments, Revenge of the Sith serves up the anticipated answers with a flourish. But it is the spark of humanity that sets it apart from its predecessors, not its grand pyrotechnics.

Have you seen Revenge of the Sith? Send your reviews to entertainment@timesonline.co.uk

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