Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace effort after a 22-year hiatus following "Star Wars" in 1977. "The Phantom Menace" was released in theaters on May 19, 1999, almost 16 years after the premiere of the previous "Star Wars" film, "Return of the Jedi". The film's premiere was extensively covered by media and was greatly anticipated because of the large cultural following the "Star Wars" saga had cultivated. It received mixed reviews; critics praised the visuals, action sequences, John Williams' musical score and some of the performances, but criticized the screenplay, characterization, and Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd's performances (as Jar Jar Binks and Anakin Skywalker respectively).
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith the details—only major plot points. He began working on the screenplay for "Episode III" even before the previous film, "", was released, proposing to concept artists that the film would open with a montage of seven battles on seven planets. Michael Kaminski, in "The Secret History of Star Wars", surmises that Lucas found flaws with Anakin's fall to the dark side and radically re-organized the plot. For instance, instead of opening the film with various Clone Wars battles, Lucas decided instead to focus on Anakin, ending the film's first act with his killing of Count Dooku, an action that signals