But even when Anakin was being his most insufferable self, I still got to watch a villain who owns his depravity: Palpatine. He luxuriates in emotional manipulation, and the pure sensuality of his malevolent Svengali-ing of Anakin makes the movie. He delights in playing the role of a concerned, noble leader of the Republic, and then fights the Republic’s greatest defender in that very same Senatorial hall. This is true heinousness, people.
Palpatine’s sinister speech in the Senate, employing a righteous narrative of restoring faith and peace and creating “a safe and secure society” as justification for wresting power, is the clear highlight of this movie. And it prompts the only decent line from Padmé: “So this is how liberty dies … with thunderous applause.”