well done!

Rating: 9/10 (29 May 2002)

A lot of bad things have been said about George Lucas following the mildly annoying Star Wars Episode I. Two of them are definitely not true: That he doesn't listen to critics and that he `has lost it'.
Honestly, I did not expect much from Episode II. I hoped for a state of the art display of CG which was not so obnoxious you would want to turn away. But I was pleasantly surprised already a few minutes into the film. There was a lot of CG, but not just for the fun of it. The atmosphere was dense and gloomy and as the plot unraveled, there was a real sense of danger and, almost too good to be true for the action movie it basically is, it actually started developing some depth. The force is no more an infectious disease and Jedi are finally something more than well coreographed martial artists. There was a mystical undercurrent, brilliantly displayed by Joda in two very different pivotal scenes. There is the overall sense of corruption and doom, a very well done hierarchy among the Jedi and finally a really interesting geneology of people to play a role in the original Star Wars.
Also the characterization and acting was quite good overall. I even found the love story well done. It was so ridiculous and juvenile - if by accident or by design - that it provides a firm background for Anakin to be thrown onto the dark side, as it inevitably has to come.
Some things could of course have been done better. Obi-Wan for example was a little too weak and uncharismatic in my opinion to make Anakins rebellion against him believable. And, if queens are elected on Naboo, do they really vote for one that is a mere 16 years old? But these are minor glitches that do not substantially undermine the general soundness of the plot and characters.
On the technical side I liked the action sequences a lot. In contrast to the now usual action fare, they are not cut in the 2-second pieces that make you want to throw up after a minute. They actually allow you to follow what is going on to a large extent and, although quite frequent, they do not cut the movie into disconnected pieces. And, what is really nice, they are lacking the totally unbelievable two-people-against-a-whole-army-scenes.
And finally, there is one little detail that I almost admire Lucas for: He managed to dispose of obnoxious Jar-Jar Binks in a fashion, that both his fans and opponents will approve: He is there in the movie, but he is not only told to shut up once, but, as it turns out, he is the one formally responsible for the death of the republic and the creation of the empire!
Overall, I really liked this movie and even a little more. George Lucas has grown up - and that is meant as a compliment. Back in 1977 the now `Episode 4' seems to have hit the nerve of that time. For me at least it seems, that Episode 2 has done that again.