Good special effects

Rating: Null/10 (13 December 2002)

This movie reminds me of one those games with really great graphics but not much gameplay. You could pause this film at pretty much any part and frame the resulting image on your bedroom wall, each individual frame looks that good. But after seeing the film and the documentaries on the DVD it's obvious they concentrated a lot more on the looks of the film than the story and characters.
The original trilogy was close to perfection because it had great special effects, characters you get to know and love and a really great story spanning three films. It looks like this trilogy will the king of special effects, but with characters you don't really care about and a story that doesn't have any real impact.
That said, Episode 2 is hard to beat for popcorn entertainment. The only thing that actually annoys me when watching either episode one or two is it's childishness. I've heard George Lucas say that Star Wars are kids films, and it seems like he wants to leave no doubt that these latest additions are kids films.
Episodes 1, 2 and 3 may not be remembered in the same light as 4, 5 and 6 in time, but they do the job (in a very visually appealing way) of showing the world and telling the events that led up to Star Wars: A New Hope.