There is a scene towards the end of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith that encapsulates everything that went wrong with the prequel trilogy.
Anakin Skywalker, Force wunderkind turned emo Jedi slayer, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, his former chum and sensei, are engaged in a lightsaber duel, ostensibly to the death. This encounter is the culmination of three films’ worth of glacial-paced inevitability. A master who must kill his student. A student convinced he’s been betrayed by his mentor. There should be excitement; a crescendo of emotion and tragedy. But there isn’t. Instead, we get unconvincing CG lava sploshing hither and thither; peril-free jumping from one high thing to another high thing; and we get this:
