Too little way too late **spoilers**

Rating: Null/10 (25 February 2002)

Since he waited almost 20 years to pick up this series, I'm honestly not sure how I would have wanted Lucas to handle this, but there's a couple problems right off the bat as far as I'm concerned - I was seven when I saw the first Star Wars film and like many others I was obsessed with it as a child, but now I'm not a kid anymore so do I want the series to pick up the way it was when I was a child, or do I want it to appeal to me now as an adult? I think it tried to be both, and ended up being neither. No one could fault the visuals - it looked better than any film I've seen as far as that goes, but unfortunately no matter how eye-poppingly stunning the visuals are, that just ain't very far. The story was not bad - it wasn't the adventure that the first one was, and of course this predates all of the characters we've come to know and love to that element is gone as well...I hate to say it, but the only word that comes to mind to express my dissatisfaction was that it was just so...forgettable. I don't recall the name of Liam Neison's character, and I just didn't care when he was killed by the equally forgettable Darth Maul (next to Darth Vader, what a yawn this guy was)...the kid who played young Anakin was equally dull and forgettable, and I didn't buy for a second the kid was bright or talented enough to fly a pod much less build C3PO (as I think I was supposed to believe)...the Princess was just kind of there, unlike the attention-grabbing Princess Leia of the first three films. I'm actually forced to admit that the most memorable character in the film was Jar Jar, and not because he was such a feat of movie-making technology but because he was the most annoying movie character I've been forced to endure in recent memory - he's memorable for all the wrong reasons. He makes a great doll, though, so I imagine we can expect to see more of him in the next film. I don't know...with the exception of the kid who played Anakin the actors were all top notch, I can't fault them, but something was just missing...perhaps the seven year old within me is just gone, but I felt like this film was one big study in special effects, and applied an overblown seriousness to what was once a fun adventure - a seriousness which I think was meant to appeal to the adult in me. Well, Jar Jar didn't appeal to the kid in me, I wanted to choke him, and the self-important seriousness didn't appeal to the adult in me (just because I'm grown up doesn't mean I need a scientific explaination of how the Force works - the Force surrounds us all and binds all things together, or whatever Yoda said the first go around, don't try to explain it, because all you end up doing is calling attention to the fact that it couldn't really exist). I'd be curious to know what a child thought of it, but if you're like me, someone who loved the V through VII but doesn't still buy Star Wars books, you might find yourself thinking less about the fate of the characters, and more about how cramped your legs feel in the theater.