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For sheer lack of subtlety, the light-saber-wielding forces of good and evil in George Lucas's "Star Wars" movies can't hold a candle to the blogging, advertising and boycotting forces of the right and left. (Or left and right.) More a measure of the nation's apparently permanent political warfare than of a filmmaker's intent, the heroes and antiheroes of Mr. Lucas's final entry, "Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," were on their way to becoming the stock characters of partisan debate by mid-Wednesday, hours before the film's opening just after midnight: The liberal advocacy group Moveon.org was preparing to spend...

AP) All those "Star Wars" geeks, who've been waiting for weeks outside movie theaters with their Yoda sleeping bags and their homemade lightsabers, finally have a film that's worthy of their perseverance. The Force is strong with "Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," the sixth and final piece in George Lucas' galactic saga, which represents a welcome return to the ideas and the spirit that made his original "Star Wars" a pop-culture juggernaut 28 years ago. The circle is now complete, as Lucas' characters are fond of saying, and much of the film's joy comes from watching these familiar...

CANNES, France, (AP) Without Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11" at the Cannes Film Festival this time, it was left to George Lucas and "Star Wars" to pique European ire over the state of world relations and the United States' role in it. Lucas' themes of democracy on the skids and a ruler preaching war to preserve the peace predate "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" by almost 30 years. Yet viewers Sunday — and Lucas himself — noted similarities between the final chapter of his sci-fi saga and our own troubled times. Cannes audiences made blunt comparisons...

CANNES, France - Without Michael Moore and "Fahrenheit 9/11" at the Cannes Film Festival this time, it was left to George Lucas and "Star Wars" to pique European ire over the state of world relations and the United States' role in it. Lucas' themes of democracy on the skids and a ruler preaching war to preserve the peace predate "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" by almost 30 years. Yet viewers Sunday — and Lucas himself — noted similarities between the final chapter of his sci-fi saga and our own troubled times. Cannes audiences made blunt comparisons...

STAR WARS director George Lucas brushed off critics of the last three installments of his genre-defining series last night as he attended the glittering world premiere for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in Cannes.Critics have hailed his new film as a vast improvement on the first two prequels, but Lucas said he paid little heed. "I see it all as one movie and I don’t pay much attention to whether people like one chapter or another," he said. "We have two fan bases - the over-25s and the under-25s. The over-25 fan base is loyal to the...

One of the most powerful images from “Revenge of the Sith” is that of Anakin Skywalker, having turned to the Dark Side, leading a battalion of Clone Troopers to storm the Jedi temple. In several of the trailers, we see the Coruscant skyline, Anakin rising up the stairs in dark flowing robes, with the troopers holding their blasters at the ready. The coterie ascends, and then marches through the grand hall, the clatter of clone trooper boots contrasting with Anakin almost silently flowing across the floor like a wisp of dark cloud.We can safely assume from this scene that the...

Well, you can all relax. While ROTS isn't a masterpiece, it's pretty darn good. I managed to slip into a preview showing earlier today and had a thoroughly good time. Yes, it's pretty grim in places. Yet if anything, I'd say it wasn't grim enough. The opening battle will have your jaw hitting the floor. Wall-to-wall butt-kicking on a cosmic scale. And the betrayal of the Jedi...well, it really, really hurts. Even when you know it's coming, it hurts. Oh, yes. This one's a keeper.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of Hamas Count Dooku from Star Wars 2