I gotta say, I'm relieved.

Rating: 8/10 (17 May 2002)

I mean, I was really prepared for a root-canal of a movie. Prepared to grit my teeth through the whole thing. (Jar-Jar broke my heart. I know a lot of you can relate.)
But I had a great time at this movie. Samuel Jackson, Christopher Lee, and Ewan McGregor were all top-notch (and that's not just because I find Obi-Wan way yummier than young Anakin). That Natalie just keeps getting more beautiful. Stirring music, breathtaking vistas, a whole lot o' Jedi (including girls!! and kung fu!!), Boba Fett's dad, mythic tidbits a-plenty. And as has been stated numerous times on this database, Yoda does, in fact, rock.
I'm an incredibly picky and critical moviegoer, and the fact that I only have three negative things to say about this movie is really pretty amazing.
First, consistently distributed throughout the film, I felt manipulated by gamer-logic. The special effects were gorgeous, and most of the action scenes were really exciting, but I kept getting distracted by thoughts like "Oh, that'll be a tricky part in the video game".
Second, while I'm not prepared to say that Hayden Christensen is a bad actor, I thought that most of his scenes were not written in such as way as to allow him to play them well.
And third, I thought it was incredibly cruel to have the star-crossed lovers hanging around some of the most romantic landscapes ever put on film, and for Padme's costumes to just keep getting prettier. "No, no, our love is forbidden. Let me just make my hair a little more tousled and put on a gauzier outfit."
But if you're a Star Wars fan, I'm confident you'll have a great time here. This one got me thinkin' how much fun it's going to be when all six films are out and we can have 12-hour marathon viewings of the whole cycle. 'Cause it's the only great modern myth, after all.