Great, but not epic

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 1999)

The special effects and costuming were all I could have asked for from a Lucas film. The fight scenes were, in a word, incredible. The characters (with the exception of Darth Maul) were all *very* well developed; in fact, I would have happily sat through a longer movie to give the characters' background stories more screen time. Portman pulled off regal and spunky with a flair, Neeson and MacGregor were *born* to play Jedi, Lloyd made quite a precocious Skywalker, and Jar-Jar was funny, darnit.
The plot, I felt, kept this movie from being the epic that the original "Star Wars" was. There was so *much* going on that it seemed somewhat disjointed at times, as though there were scenes cut out or vital pieces of backstory I had missed in all the star-hopping. The Dark Side was rather under-represented, and there were so many new characters to meet and old ones to revisit that I found myself wishing for a little more time to spend just getting to know them. Overall, I enjoyed the movie and will probably see it again, but I actually wish Lucas had been a little less ambitious (though understandably, he had a lot to live up to with this one). I eagerly look forward to the sequels; the characters were really engaging, and I'm dying to see what happens as young Ani grows closer to his destiny.