Knew it would be terrible

Rating: Null/10 (13 June 2002)

Thats why I snuck into the theatre to see it (for only the third time in my life). I just couldn't rationalize contributing any further to Lucas's fat purse which he obviously loves far more than his long-gone artistic achievements. Even after getting in for free, I still left well before the ending--having done so only once previously. Now I understand that you can't "eat principles", but with over a billion dollars earned from his earlier films, it doesn't appear that our friend George is starving. The story is only marginally better than Phantom Menace's, however little that is saying, and nearly all of the actors deliver extremely weak performances. Christopher Lee, a notable exception, still shouldve turned this one down. His "Count Dooku" role was misconceived and seemed designed solely for the purpose of including a well-respected, Alec Guinness-like British star. Even more disturbing, despite the urgings of fans far more devoted than I, Lucas still hasn't transferred the directorial and screenwriting reins to more capable professionals (as he had the one-time good sense to do in Empire Strikes Back) and concentrate on what he knows: storywriting and props. So we're stuck with another messy, thrown-together flick whose sole purpose is to inflate its creator's already enormous bank account.