A welcome return to form

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2002)

Saw AOTC this morning in a surprisingly empty theatre (don't people skive off work any more?). It's almost as good as Empire Strikes Back but not quite. Anyway, who cares? It's still two and a half hours of pure escapism and after all that's what Star Wars is all about.
Pros. 1) An actual plot and some significant character development! The movie is similar in tone to Empire and that can only be a good thing.
2) Jar-Jar Binks is only in it for 5 minutes.
3) Decent performances. Christiansen and Portman struggle in the love scenes but do well at the dramatic stuff. McGregor is given a bit more to chew on but still can't get the accent right. At least he has emerged from the coma he was in during the first film. Jackson does well but amazingly Yoda steals the show (how sad is that?). None of them have much to work with but do their best.
4) This film is STUNNING to look at. George Lucas doesn't care about characters, scripts or any of that crap. He's interested in how the film looks and it shows.
5) The finale. Yoda sorts the men from the boys. His scene is a stroke of genius but its also hilarious.
Cons. 1) Some of the corniest (and funniest) dialogue ever. For example "Good call, my young padawan". I rest my case.
2) The love scenes. The lines are bad, the actors are bad and the scenes detract from the pace of the film. This is the point where Clones falls down compared to Empire. They are crucial to the film but could have been handled so much better.
3) No Han Solo. The modern films really do lack a hero character with charisma on screen who can make the script sound good by making it obvious they weren't taking it too seriously. Harrison Ford excelled at this, stole every movie in the original trilogy and had by far the most successful career of the original cast.
In other words, this is everything we expect from a Star Wars film. Dodgy script, dodgy acting in parts, stunning visuals, great action and still a great work of imagination that we can't help taking a day off work to watch (well some of us).