A successful warmup

Rating: 10/10 (29 November 1999)

Before I saw this movie I already had seen several trailers, a music video, several negative critic opinions and heard my friends say how Jar Jar Binks is SO annoying. I went to see the movie open-minded - to be true, I repeated "I'm gonna like this movie, I'm gonna like this movie" to myself all the time =:) The first twenty minutes...it was a shock. The beginning was, let's just say, terrible. Neimodians sucked badly and the whole scene was pointless. And it didn't get any better after that. Gungan City scene was too short and the earth's core-stuff had nothing to do with the movie. And the rescue operation, it was TERRIBLE. R2D2 saved the day, yippee. But THEN...they arrived at Tattooine. Jake Lloyd and Pernilla August were perfect in their roles. Suddenly, the movie appeared to be entertaining and smart. Podrace was the best scene in the whole movie, and of course Anakin had to win - "your father was a great pilot when I first met him", remember...? Coruscant was absolutely fabulous and mindbending. I mean, it was all computer-generated and looked SO real. The galactic senate scene was realistic and I could see frustration and despair in Amidala's and Palpatine's eyes. Jedi Council couldn't have been better, I could almost FEEL members of the council worried because they sense something in Anakin... Okay, I admit it, when Amidala and Boss Nass signed a treaty with this "I'm Amidala...", "No, I'M queen Amidala!" stuff was horrible. But can't complain. Gungan battle scene was truly amazing and Jar Jar Binks funny as hell. The space battle could have been better Jedi knights vs. Darth Maul, now THAT was something. The palace battle wasn't so good, twelve guys against droidekas, battle droids and a friggin' army? No way...
Anyway, this movie didn't crash my expectations. The beginning was terrible, but the rest was absolutely 10 out of 10. We have to remember that this is only a warm-up, just like Episode IV was. More to come...
May the force be with you.