Empty & Boring Love Story with Great SFX

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2002)

The Love Story subplot is badly written, poorly acted, too long, tedious and boring. It seems that Lucas can no longer cast, write for, or direct young actors,. The very talented Ms. Portman is only marginally effective in Clones, IMO, through no fault of her own. There is only so much a young actor can do with such extended wooden dialogue and aimless direction. Hayden Christensen, OTH, transcends the merely mediocre material to be truly awful in his own right. It's like the stiff child actor who played little Anakan in Phantom has grown up to be an equally untalented teen actor. None of the strength, power, charisma, dark humor, or nacent malevolence of the future Darth Vadar come through in any way. Instead, we get shallow teen idol mouthing and grimacing his way through the part, reminicent of the days when studios used to cast teen rock stars in movies without regard for their acting ability --if any. I did not believe Mr. Christensen's Anakan for one second. Instead of Darth Vadar trapped inside a teen, I am seeing a spoiled 10 year old trapped in the body of an awkward 18 year old. Believe it or not, there are numerous young male actors who can really act & help give some life to such a flat script. Lucas either no longer knows young talent when he sees it, or does not care as long as they "look the part." Mark Hamill comes across like a trained Shakespearean actor compared to Hayden Christensen. Worse, these two "lovers" are on screen declaiming there love (and filling in back story trivia) for extended periods of time, causing virtually everyone in the theater to start twitching and moving tiredly in their seats -- including the young girls that such chick material must have been aimed at. Lucas has too much control of this material for his own good. Much of this tedious pap could and should have been edited out without harming the story at all. (Remember how short and sweet the love interest was kept in the first Trilogy? What happened to that restraint?) Dare I say it, Lucas is starting to remind me of Kevin Costner, who can't bring himself to cut anything either after he has shot it. OTH, the action scenes, costumes, and digital sets are remarkable and well worth the price of admission, and (other than Christopher Lee's always memorable turns) are just about the only real reason to see this flick, unless you are into memorizing the latest Star Wars trivia,