the barrel's been scraped so many times it should have holes by now

Rating: Null/10 (6 August 2000)

I liked the first star wars movie, and it was fine that Lucas felt the story should be told in two films. In fact, the second was even better in my opinion, far more intelligent and "realistic" from a thematic standpoint (had a terrific climax and denouement, but not the cliched "happy ending"). The third was geared too much for the series' juvenile audience, indicating the producer's excessive commercial emphasis. Now this one has been taken a step further, with a child actually being the star of the movie! As if that wasn't bad enough, we've got awful (yes, awful!) special effects; fake lightening, easily recognized computer animation, and electric springboards, which do not enhance the feature one iota. As for the story, it seems that Lucas spent years planning the technical aspects of the film and left the script for the last few days. Anakin Skywalker born of an immaculate conception???? (didn't know he was Jesus) Obi Wan Kenobi had a braided longlock??? A 20 minute replay of Ben Hur with Jabba the Hut in place of Pontius Pilate??? Even with that aside, why did Lucas have to steal ideas from star trek, subsituting boring political and bureaucracy nonsense for the high-powered action scenes which made the original films so famous? The sad fact is, George Lucas's entire career (which has netted him over 2 billion dollars, the largest amount for anyone in hollywood) is based on one film. The product tie-ins: toys, beverage glasses, t-shirts, breakfast cereals, reruns, video tapes, video games,...... have made him so wealthy that it doesn't pay for him not to produce an endless series of sequels, no matter how ridiculous they are.