A truly great epic from the Pod Race on...

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 1999)

The grandeur of the film starts at the Pod Race. The pace picks up and the movie takes off becoming a film worthy of belonging to the Star Wars epic. The story stumbles on its way there. It seems too fast, too cutty. The story doesn't give itself time to unfold. Anakin (who's acting is one of the film's shortcomings, next to the unintelligibility of Jar Jar Binks) falls in love too quickly with Padme, for instance. He too into her with not so much as a moment of contemplation leading up to it. The settings shift without flow. The characters are not being built so much as displayed. It's not until the Pod Race that you're comfortable enough with the characters to fall in love with them. For then on perfection takes over and the magic engulfs you. Unlike most people, I don't hate Jar Jar as much as I had too much trouble understanding what he says. He almost needs subtitles. But even his mumbling clears up after the Pod Race. All in all, I liked the film and will probably see it again, but felt like I had to get into it rather then being yanked in.