Lucas has run out of ideas

Rating: 6/10 (18 May 2002)

This film is far, far superior to the Phantom Menace. However, George Lucas has left himself with too much to do from a storytelling perspective, and appears to be way out of his depth. For all his claims of having the grand storyline written all along, he suddenly has to get from point A (powerful, precocious young Jedi) to point B (most evil man in the galaxy) over the course of two films, and it doesn't look like he knows how. What results is a mess of cliches and rehashes of his own (and other people's) work, riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions, and with parts looking like the opening chapters of My First Book of Love Stories.
The special effects are, of course, astounding. It's rumoured that 95% of the film isn't real, and although that's certainly believable, you may have a hard time spotting the gaps between the genuine 5% and the rest. The Phantom Menace was technically impressive, despite its other more obvious (and less forgivable) flaws, but this film exists on another level beyond it. However, special effects do not the film make - and although poor effects can ruin a film, perfect effects do not make it a success (just look at the Final Fantasy movie).
This effort may be heralded as a "return to form" for George Lucas, but if that is the case, then it makes me inclined to go back and watch the original trilogy with a more critical eye and see if they are as weak as the most recent two. And I don't want to do that - I treasure my childhood memories.
Exciting, visually magnificent, in parts amusing, but overall it is a two-hour exposition of the mind of George Lucas, which seems far shallower, and emptier, than I'd ever considered. An improved 6/10 to the Phantom Menace's 4.
Kids should love it, if they know what's good for them.