not the greatest, but a good film

Rating: 7/10 (10 April 2001)

I know a lot of people have been saying how long they were waiting for this to come out and how disappointed they were, well of course they were disappointed! I saw this movie in the theatre and I wasn't disappointed, want to know why? Because I didn't listen to all the hype. Because I expected it to not be as good as the original. This film was basically 20 years in the making, that's some build-up. I think even if Lucas had written an incredible script, hired the greatest actors in the world, and done everything else "right" there would've still been disappointment.
I grew up with Star Wars but I, unlike other fans, wasn't insulted by this movie, I liked it. I didn't find Jar Jar annoying, I found him odd and a little hard to understand at times, but he wasn't as horrible as people are saying. I like special effects as long as the movie isn't solely about them, and this one wasn't. True, Qui-Gonn was never mentioned in the first 3 movies, but his addition helped the story along. Obi-Wan told Luke that he felt he was ready to train Luke's father, but it turned out he wasn't. This movie helped to show that. Obi-Wan wasn't even done with his training, yet he helps Anakin. Yeah, that whole Amidala/Padme thing was kind of confusing, but every script has flaws. My major gripe with the movie was the casting of Jake Lloyd as Anakin. Sure he's cute and everything, but I went into this movie knowing that the role was going to be recast. That was the beauty of the first 3, everyone came back. Even for this one Ian McDiarmid came back as Palpatine. It's gonna be kind of weird when the queen has aged just a couple of years and Anakin turns from this little towhead into this hunky young guy. Maybe it's the force or something. All in all a good film.