The BEST Star Wars in a LONG time! Great movie!

Rating: 10/10 (17 May 2002)

After suffering from the hype and disappointment of the special FX-dependent Episode I, George Lucas and his Star Wars franchise made a great comeback with Episode II.
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones marks the return of greatness to the franchise plus some new elements added.
AOTC is the most emotional movie of the franchise where there are some credible (although a few were not) crying scenes of pain. To be honest, I don't remember a Lucas-directed movie being this expressive and I'm glad George himself presented it.
Not only that, we finally got to see the ORIGIN of Darth Vader in young Anakin who was driven by arrogance, rebellion, rage and hatred as seen in the movie. Hayden C. delivered those elements very well and is convincing enough. Natalie Portman's Amidala is much better and more expressive on the screen. Heck, now we've seen how Luke's mother was.
Ewan McGregor delivers a good performance in AOTC as Obi-Wan, in fact a major improvement over his The Phantom Menace performance. In the first movie, Ewan is labeled as a guy who does not know acting. Of course, don't expect a Moulin Rouge-expressive act from him here since this is a fantasy.
Christopher Lee, aka Dracula, is remarkable as the count. As for Yoda, this is the best way to present him. We get to see Yoda's TRUE POWER and wisdom for the first time ever, and there was not a single moment wherein I did not believe in him. True, because of his size, he looks funny to the audience when he was about to fight with a lightsaber but in the end he is a convincing Jedi master and lightsaber user.
On the technical side of things, Lucasfilm really made a lot of effort to make the film production great. The special effects from ILM, as expected, are groundbreaking. The sets, costume designs, and other things are all graded A.
The story is very well presented and easily the best since The Empire Strikes Back. We see a very nice presentation of the Anakin-Amidala love story, Obi-Wan's missions, Anakin's "new" family, the big battle, etc. George Lucas wrote the story with Star Wars fans in mind, and as a result fans get to see everything related, not alien, in the Star Wars universe. As for those of you who suffered from TPM, don't worry...this movie is NOT CHILDISH like that one.
The movie is very replayable and I'm already looking to watching it again in the theaters. Not only that, I'm already looking towards the DVD of AOTC!
Overall, Star Wars: AOTC is the best film I've seen for the year! As a movie buff, I must admit that I enjoyed this movie BETTER than A New Hope, Return of the Jedi and TPM. Only Empire Strikes Back stands taller than this one.
The greatness is BACK, everyone! Star Wars is right on track and I hope that George Lucas can deliver a slamming conclusion with Episode III. I'm already looking towards 2005. :)