Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Herald rating: ****

Star-meister George Lucas returns with the Jedi, Darth Vader and his phantom menaces. Because he's long been at the forefront of technology overlaid with wizardry, let's start with the two-disc special edition set.

Naturally, the first disc has the feature, 50 scene selections and a chapter insert, plus something called a "THX Optimizer suite of audiovisual calibration tests".

Fact is, the video and sound are so stunning that you could calibrate your old valve television with a spanner and still be gobsmacked. And because Lucas likes playing around with his toys, you get different menu graphics each time you boot up the disc.

On the commentary track, Lucas takes the lead role alongside producer Rick McCallum, animation director Rob Coleman and visual effects supervisors John Knoll and Roger Guyett. The film-maker asks viewers to think of the six instalments as one long movie about the tragedy of Darth Vader, which you may not have taken the best part of 20 hours and 28 years since the original Star Wars in 1977 to figure out for yourself.

Naturally, his collaborators are there to comment on technical aspects of making the film. Like this: Mt Etna erupted while they were filming, so Lucas sent a photographic team to Italy to get footage. So the big lava sequence in the movie's finale uses computer graphics, scale models and a real volcano. There is no commentary from the studio accountants on this use of the petty cash. And, of course, there are Easter eggs.

The second disc is centred around a two-hour doco, Within a Minute, which is intended to describe the contribution of each film-making craft, but comes across as an exhaustive or exhausting thank-you note from Lucas to everyone who ever got their names in the end-credits over the six movies.

The next feature is self-explanatory - It's all for Real: The Stunts - while a 15-minute piece, The Chosen One, recaps Anakin Skywalker's path from hero to Vader to "the pinnacle of all evil".

We are not done yet ... Lucas and MacCallum introduce six deleted scenes; John Williams gets a music video of his anthem, A Hero Falls; there's a nostalgia teaser, movie and TV trailers. And then we're on to the web docos, 15 of 'em, running from four to eight minutes, that cover every aspect of film-making ... yes, we have been there before. Plus production photos, posters, a playable introduction to the Xbox game and a DVD-ROM link to more Star Wars stuff.

Yep, George ain't only here for the techie stuff, he's here for the merchandising, too.

Surrounded by all that, you may be wondering if you need to watch the actual movie. Of course you will, because this episode leads to the point where the original movie began, completing the circle, and is said to be the last in the series.

Don't count on that, for Lucas originally planned nine movies and there are indications that he, or his disciples, may be enticed to complete the cycle.

Star Wars fans were disappointed in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, feeling that the action was lost in a political rant. This returns closer to the feel of the original even if Lucas' dialogue and characterisation is as one-dimensional as ever. The theme is to answer the question of how and why Anakin lost his way and finally crossed the boundary from hero to dark side.

As it opens, Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and his friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), are carrying out a daring raid in their fighter craft to rescue Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) from the clutches of the rebel General Grievous.

When they get back to the Jedi Council, Anakin finds that he will still not be named a Jedi Master. The council doesn't trust Palpatine and wants Anakin to spy on him; conversely, Palpatine wants Anakin to spy on the council. The young hero must choose which path to follow.

As he ponders his course, Anakin meets Padme (Natalie Portman), who he secretly married in Episode II. She reveals she is pregnant. Another dilemma: Anakin tries to do the nice guy thing but he's worried about what fatherhood will mean to all those cool guy things that he can do now.

From the first reel, of course, the Star Wars series has been a cowboy movie, with the goodies and baddies riding cool spacefighters and fast-drawing lightsabres rather than riding Ol' Paint and pulling a Colt .45. And that's what you get now: spectacular action, sophisticated special effects, more of both than in any of the earlier flicks.

Great fun, great entertainment: this is the lighter side of George Lucas' world, and more than worth the journey. If it does turn out to be the final chapter, what a long, strange trip it's been.

* DVD, Video rental today