Please, let someone else direct episode 3........

Rating: 8/10 (3 October 2002)

Grrrr. Its happened again. I have been to see a star wars prequel. I have come out of the cinema thinking 'that was amazing'. I have realised that quite large parts of it, in actual fact, suck. I did it with TPM and I am doing it now. Although I have to be fair. There were far more things which made my buttocks clench in TPM than AOTC.
Ewan McGregor's accent didn't make him sound like a gay butler in this one. He was very good. The fantastic Temuera Morrison made a really good Jango Fett (although I cant see the expanded universe de-decapitating him as they did getting Boba out of the sarlacc). Christopher Lee is always good value, as is Samuel L (it would be interesting to compare their combined box office. SLJ is (or was. this factoid was true a few years ago and I cant see AOTC clones hurting it) the worlds biggest box office draw, in terms of combined gross of films). The Yoda battle was always going to be a crowd pleaser and it didn't disappoint. I am also pleased to see a bit more 'Jedi Lore' creeping in, with the Jedi Library and the likes. And what can I say about the final battle? I don't think I blinked for 20 minutes! And I also liked the noise those charges made when Jango Fett was chasing Obi Wan. And there was also a refreshing lack of Jar Jar, although history will have him down as the man who helped kick the whole thing off. Maybe he will be lynched in episode 3.
However, Hayden Christiansen cannot act (how many people were auditioned? Where did they get them from?) and his scenes with amidala were very poorly written and acted (not by the lovely miss portman, though, poor cow). I wish I could get the ladies just by telling them over and over again that I liked them (jedi mind trick?). There was some needless CGI. The bit where anakin rode the cow thing was just terrible. The genosians still sound like gay japanese business men. There were several unnecessary scenes included and some necessary ones missing. The middle of the film was just a bit crap, especially as it was sandwiched between a good beginning and a fantastic end.
All in all, the good outweighs the bad. I think out of the two prequels this will stand the test of time. But, unfortunately there are too many niggles for this film to be remembered as fondly as 'star wars' in 25 years.
like I always say, George lucas may have crafted one of the best, most imaginative, enduring and downright fantastic alternate realities ever conceived, but he would do better turning over the directorial reigns to someone else. Empire strikes back anyone?