Good, but not mind-blowing

Rating: Null/10 (19 July 2002)

As readers of my Spiderman review will know, I saw this movie, with a bunch of my friends. Half of them were still in the habit of judging a film on its SFX or last half hour alone (shocking I know). The rest of us (probably through years of watching "classics" as recommended by our parents) need a little bit more from our cinematic experiences.
I'll admit the SFX were excellent, but I did notice one UNFORGIVABLE mistake. During one of the highly annoying love scenes (which I will talk about later) Anakin hovers across a piece of fruit towards Padme. The bite appeared easily noticeably early. And after seeing some of the earlier scenes in which i found it hard to differentiate between real and CG. I wonder know if he(Lucas)meant it, as it would make more sense.
The acting. Christopher Lee, well, he could make Cage's character in 'Gone In 60' look like he had depth. Ewan MacGregor, good as could be expected. Samuel L. Jackson, except the cheddar line that was: "This party's over!" was on par. Now, for the two main characters...... Natalie Portman, however hot she looks, cannot use looks to increase her performance.
And now for the man, who, had it not been for the rest of the film, would have sunk the whole saga. Hayden Christensen, with his attempt at (what should have been at least) a subtle transgression to the dark side (of course this could have been Lucas' fault, which i doubt), I have never seen a more obvious change in character when it need not have been so. It kinda went like this: (note the KINDA)
I'm Anakin, I'm happy, I've once more met my soul mate. Oops, I maybe got a little bit angry while talking to said soul mate, but it happens. I'm going to my home planet, to find my mother (wonder why, with all my "powers" I didn't think of this sooner). I've found out from my step-father she went missing, I'm getting a little peeved now. I've found her, I'm really peeved. Wow, it was lucky I found out it was their bad treatment that caused her to die (but, also luckily, she didn't die until after I had seen her) otherwise I wouldn't have been able to completely psycho and kill all the sand people, and their dogs. Now I'm Anakin but I'm OBVIOUSLY not happy since said event.
I'm sorry to you Star Wars fans, I am a very sceptical person. And everyone has the right to an opinion.
But apart from the few niggles, the very few niggles. It was quite good, 3rd best so far, behind 'A New Hope' and the excellent 'Empire Strikes Back'.
Personally, my favourite character in this movie was Jango Fett. Unfortunate that he had to die in such a sudden way.
7/10