Oh, so close!

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2004)

What's not to like about this film? It's compelling, centering on a great political struggle and the unmasking of a galactic conspiracy. It looks terrific, with very good effects and imagery. There's plenty of action with great light sabre duels, aerial dog-fights, and a huge land battle. It even has the poignant blossoming of young love. What else could you want?
Answer: A better script, more believable dialog, and (sadly) a different director. The performances given by most of the cast of EPISODE II are so wooden, so stilted, they significantly detract from the enjoyment of the film. The "fireplace scene," for example, between Anakin and Amidala is comically bad. One cannot help wonder that perhaps with a different script and a different director, the entire love story angle of EPISODE II might have had more realism and thus, more emotional impact.
It seems as George Lucas becomes more adept at creating incredible imaginary vistas and creatures, he becomes less skillful at handling real actors and producing real moments from them. Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman are no hacks. They've been incredible in other films. And yet, give them a George Lucas script and George Lucas direction and they turn into pieces of lumber. Sad.
EPISODE II has much going for it. With little more life in the script, we may be talking about one of the best of the STAR WARS series. Alas, it was not to be. This isn't a terrible film, in fact if you get past the aforementioned flaws, it's quite a yarn. Still, the viewer is left with a gnawing sense of what might have been.