George Lucas’s morally complex study of a talented young man whose fears and ambitions inhibit his desire to do good forms the basis of what is by far the best of the three Star Wars prequels. Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is a member of the Jedi order, which guards and protects a galactic republic spanning scores of planets. His marriage to the love of his life, Padmé (Natalie Portman), must be kept secret because the Jedi order forbids emotional attachments to individuals, let alone marriage. When Skywalker has a nightmare about Padmé’s untimely death, resembling a dream that foreshadowed his mother’s death, he becomes obsessed with preventing this tragedy. Meanwhile, the Jedi council’s refusal to promote Skywalker to the rank of Jedi Master because of his immature and headstrong attitude prompts a resentment from Skywalker that, in conjunction with his fears for Padmé, leads him into a confidence with the duplicitous, sweet-spoken leader of the Republic, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who plans to destroy the Jedi and the democratic republic it protects and supplant them with a galactic empire over which he would rule as absolute dictator. Palpatine makes Skywalker a Faustian offer to save Skywalker’s wife from an early death in exchange for Skywalker’s assistance in the destruction of everything else Skywalker holds dear, including his fellow Jedi and father-like mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). Though the film suffers a bit from some lackluster dialogue (a much more severe problem in the first two prequels), its gripping story and the compelling moral dilemmas it raises provide excellent food for thought on the inherent sinfulness of man.