A balanced, analytical view of the film.

Rating: 8/10 (25 September 2000)

The main problem when this film came out was the hype! HypeÂºD! I would consider myself a very big Star Wars fan but immediately pre-release I was expecting trash. Luckily I was pleasantly surprised and overall enjoyed a good film, all though some of my fears were true, mainly in George Lucas's failure to keep certain important elements of his original trilogy.
The film's main strength is its stirring action pieces and stunning visuals, some of the special effects will blow you away if seen on the big screen. Personally however I thought too much CGI was used at times, particularly in the space scenes. The pyrotechnics and models used in ROTJ have still to be bettered in creating a realistic and intense space scene in any film. The stunts on the other hand are perfect, mainly down to the brilliant choreography wherever Ray Park is involved.
Story wise however there are some disappointments, Anakin as a centre piece could have ruined the film if the rest hadn't been up to scratch. The script is average at best, so to get a realistic and relatable child character out of it is impossible. Anakin is unrealistically clever for his age and unlike any kid I have ever come across. To claim that the original Star Wars films were 'kids films' is blatantly wrong, they are family films and there is a difference. The main characters were very realistic adults, and totally relatable and believable. In this film other than Anakin the characters are very 2 dimensional and distant.
One last point that I noticed is another comparison with the original trilogy, before we followed the protagonists on their own journey in a world where they are involved in the major 'galactic events' but are not what the galaxy revolves around,i.e. they are not the people in charge, in this film however the main characters are the centre of galactic affairs and we are again distanced from them because we do not have the same feeling of following realistic people caught up in something bigger than themselves!
Comparisons with the original trilogy are often criticised, but don't forget that this isn't supposed to be a stand alone movie and where the older three have the same feel to them this one does not. Admittedly it is hard with different characters and different technology for its production, but I can't help feeling it could have had better links to the other films! Overall I gave it an 8, where the first trilogy received 9,10,9 respectively!