Terrible love scenes + awesome action = great popcorn flick

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2002)

Oh my god, IT WAS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD!
I though that the Episode 1 pretty much sucked and went to see E2 with low expectations (especially after seeing some tacky trailers) but it really rocked. It is basically just a load of action sequences tied together with some hole filled, good-to-terribly-acted plot scenes and some hilariously terrible love scenes... and no Jar Jar Binks! Well, he does pop up for a few seconds just to remind you of how bad the film would have been if they'd included him for longer but generally there is very little in the way of the lame unfunny comedy of the last film.
On the down side, I actually thought that the effects were pretty dodgy in places, especially the first few scenes. Everything looks really shiny and unrealistic and the main city is, like in so many films, just a total carbon-copy rip-off of Blade Runner. It's so obvious when they swap between computer FX and models. The new Yoda (animated instead of a puppet) looks especially fake and despite the fact that they must have spent millions animating individual hairs on his arms, they couldn't actually make the mouth move in time with the words and his voice is slightly off too. The Love scenes with Anakin and Amidala are absolutely terrible but enjoyably so in a Bollywood kinda way - people were laughing out loud to some of it in the theater.
Any problems though didnt really matter by the end - basically a huge set of action sequences with MUCH more realistic effects than the rest of the film - because it was so much fun, especially the fight between Christorpher Lee (as a super hammy bad guy) and Yoda, and anything involving the Fetts. Actually, pretty much every action scene was better than the main fight at the end of Episode 1, which meant that all the dodgy elements just became enjoyable bits of cheese to break up the action. Even if Jar Jar had popped up at the end I was enjoying it so much that I might (MIGHT) have even laughed!
Ultimately, the film was a shallow but super-enjoyable popcorn-flick. After seeing Episode 1, I came out trying - unsuccessfully - to convince myself that it was actually good. After coming out of Episode 2 my only thought was - I've gotta go see that again!