The Lucas marketing phenomenon steamrolls ahead!

Rating: Null/10 (17 May 2002)

I can understand why so many people love this film. An opportunity to divest oneself of the daily grind, the chance to let magic and fantasy transport you to worlds unglimpsed, lives which only exist in your yearned-for dreams. This is what movies are all about - entertainment! If AOTC did it for you, well and good. Spare a thought though for people who can co-exist in the world of reality for which "The King's New Clothes" was never going to be a chance of succeeding.
I love fantasy, magic, the lure of an existence in a galaxy far far away! I also walked out totally underwhelmed from the original STAR WARS in 1977. What irritated me then is what irritates me now. George Lucas is making money by simply re-hashing all that you've ever loved and been emotionally touched by in so many films from the past 40 years or so. But it has no SOUL!!! It is the ultimate joke...a "clone" of all the action, dramatic and romantic sequences we subconsciously remember. Take away the special effects, there is NO film, just what the production team saw - actors standing for hours on end in front of a blue screen. Even Yoda comes off, a CGI shadow of his former self when a hand-held puppet! As has been reiterated time and time again, the dialog in AOTC is diabolically childish, insultingly dumb and grossly unmemorable...quite a feat in itself when you come to think of it.
For those who want to remain blinkered and selectively limited, AOTC does offer some genuinely brilliant fx, no question there, and it would be remiss of me to suggest it offers less than value for money...but this doesn't make a good film - it makes a successful one (Yeah, I'm reminded of HARRY POTTER, too) True also, is the general concensus that AOTC is more akin to THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK than any other Star Wars flick, which is probably just as well since TESB was easily the best of the series.
I found it fascinating last night, observing the queue snaking out into the street from the theater complex (well over a quarter of a kilometre most likely) lined up for TWO sessions ahead (some 5 hours plus?) Some of these people actually LOOKED intelligent! (I'd already seen it at a Press Screening, before you ask!)