Good movies can't be bought with million dollar animation.

Rating: 7/10 (17 May 2002)

It's so very sad to see a good thing stoop to such lows. I felt this movie was 2 hours of bad acting followed by 20 minutes of heart stopping animation, that came too little too late.
Amazingly Senator Amidala (Natalie Portman) does not age in the supposed 10 year stretch from the first movie...she actually gets younger. I feel her acting style portrayed her as a young child caught in something she didn't understand. From the absolutely goofy love scenes to the insanely ridiculous way they let this "Senator" (of the universe mind you) run around like a 4 year old, you get to witness all facets of her amazingly ignorant character.
I also couldn't help but notice the fantastic fight scenes where George Lucas would obviously rather give me a seizure, with FACE-LIGHTSABER-FACE-LIGHTSABER in random fashion, than give me a well choreographed battle. It's clear to me that Ray Park (fighting trainer from EP. 1) wasn't around to instruct the new crew. In fact all of the fighting throughout the film felt cold and fake. I was more "on the edge of my seat" for the Scorpion King.
For fans of the series, I'm sure this movie was the best episode yet. But if you take your bias out of the picture, and look at it for what it is, I think you'll agree it needs work.