SLIGHTLY better than The Phantom Menace

Rating: 7/10 (3 December 2005)

After the dismal Phantom Menace, I thought once you hit rock bottom, you can only go up. And I was partially right. Just like The Phantom Menace, this film suffers from weak dialogue (especially in the romance sequences) rather flat acting (especially from Hayden Christensen - whose performance FYI will thankfully improve in Revenge of the Sith), and an over-reliance on CGI. However, the film is more in line with the Original Trilogy (i.e. we see primitive Star Destroyers and Storm Troopers), the music is better soley because of a beautifully constructed new theme by John Williams (Across The Stars - the Love Theme for Anakin and Padme). And the last 45 minutes is what we come to expect from Star Wars - the action-packed Battle of Geonosis. For that reason, I give this an above average rating - 7 out of 10.