The role of the hero

Rating: Null/10 (4 June 2002)

Well it is excellent. I did not expect an intellectual film, this isn't Frank Herbert, but what it does do it does very well. The visual effects remain stunning which is no mean feat. Lucas created a standard for special effects which others struggled to keep up with. By the time the Phantom Menace was released the effects had become commonplace...this film recovers Lucas' lead in this area. The role of the hero/putative villain is central. In episode I Anakin was necessarily a horrible little kid with a grating voice - after all nobody could imagine a young Darth Vader as anything but unpleasant. In this episode he is exactly right although it is hard to see how the American government allowed this one to get through! I will not give the plot away but Anakin's reaction to his mother's fate on Tattooine is a very good motivation for his eventual turn to the dark side...signified by the use of dark side music for the first time with this character. The analogy with the Americans in Afghanistan was pretty blatant.
Of all the heroes in the Star Wars films this is the best so far...because he is allowed more depth than Mark Hammill was ever allowed to achieve.