Revenge of George Lucas?

Early reviews are coming in for the third and final installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy--Revenge of the Sith--and surprisingly the movie is getting raves above and beyond the breathless fanboy panegyrics to be expected of Harry Knowles and his flunkies at Ain't It Cool News. I'll believe it when I see it for myself, of course, but it's entirely possible that Georgie pulled this one out, if for no other reason than the simple fact that this part of the story can't be screwed up. We know that Anakin Skywalker must become Darth Vader. We know that the Jedi must get their collective asses handed to them by the Sith. We know that the Galactic Republic must at last give way to the Empire. Whereas Lucas spent most of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones noodling around with CGI and aliens better suited for Happy Meals than the Star Wars ouevre, now he has no choice but to cut to the chase and tell the tale he was supposed to have been telling all along (only to have it come out in fits and spurts).

Well, the clock's ticking now, George. It's the fourth quarter, the bottom of the ninth, the tenth frame, sudden death overtime--whatever you want to call it--and now you have to deliver the goods as promised. We've all been waiting the better part of twenty years for the Fall of Anakin Skywalker, and although you've pretty much fucked up the first two acts you can still pull off the third, because seeing Little Orphan Annie get vacu-sealed into the Darth Vader mask has always been the money shot we've all been dying to see. So let's get on with it already. On Thursday millions of diehard Star Wars fans will get some much-needed closure, if nothing else. Sure, there will still be Clone Wars cartoons and perhaps even a television series, and for all we knop Lucas may end up deciding to film those Episodes 7-9 which he's now busy categorically denying the existence of. But for now this is the end, where the saga comes full circle and bends back upon itself (George is wise to make as many explicit connections as possible between the end of this trilogy and the beginning of the original three movies, even if it means mooching off of his clearly more brilliant younger self).

Let's sit back and enjoy it, at long last...