Great action, effects, story elements, and some humor carry this one past eps 1 and 6

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2002)

Some spoilers ahead, some of a general, some of a specific nature, no overall plot summary:
Here's what I liked about Ep II:
1. Redeemed virtually every issue in ep I. 2. Fantastic effects, especially in action scenes 3. Involving plot with elements that worked well together 4. Christensen's portrayal as a frustrated Anakin 5. Interplay between master and padawan 6. Much of the humor was funny and not annoying
Here are some things that bothered me about Ep II:
1. Uneven tone. Self referential (to the series) humor here, grave seriousness there, general humor there, attempts at serious romance here, I expect variation, but the way it was done felt inconsistent within a single movie and the selection did not work perfectly for me of 2. Romantic chemistry is all off (Christensen's great frustrated tone doesn't even work well for me when it involves Portman much of the time, not all) 3. Some CGI scenes, usually static, sweeping into view, broad landscape views, look totally faked, like matte paintings as another user pointed out. 4. The scene after the attempted assasination explosion looked like video instead of film, kind of jaunting b/c the rest of the film looked like film (I know it's shot in DV but it still looks like film). There was another scene where this was the case, but I forgot what it was. 5. Many lines still delivered flatly, even one from Christopher Lee where you can see him waiting to react, instead of reacting naturally to a comment (only one from him, everything else is perfect from him) 6. Ending had some of thrown together feeling that TPM had. "Begun this clone was has," "Where is Anakin?," (getting married), we should watch senator palpatine, etc... Too much too soon without enough explanation. 7. Too much of the writing was just bad. Anakin's line about not liking sand was pretty lame. They gave Samuel Jackson some bad lines too, also Yoda had some bad lines... 8. Yoda fight was impressive, but it was a little silly looking also (probably impossible for it not to be with the little guy bouncing all around) 9. Agree with guy calling it a circus about some scenes. Should have been obvious to Obi-Wan that someone deleted the planet from the computer. I thought he was looking for some cosmic explanation about what could have happened. I assumed the part about the planet (and solar system it was in?) disappearing was obvious and he wanted more explanation. 10. If Amidala was going to vote against an army of the republic how could even someone as easily mislead as Jar Jar think she would want to vote the Chancellor emergency powers when he would obviously create a republic army, even despite the separatist threat? 11. If Count Dooku is the most powerful jedi, why is Darth Sidious his master? Or is Dooku yanking Yoda's chain, knowing he's not the most powerful? 12. Some explanations/background are not provided that would help and don't seem to be left out deliberately where I'm supposed to guess, just seemed like an oversight. In addition to the above, who the heck are the Sith? What's the Jedi/Sith rivalry all about and why was Sidious involved with Maul and the Sith in ep 1 anyway? What is Jango's relationship with Sidious and Dooku? Why did the weird seemingly peaceful scientists/business ppl the Caminos have weapons? Why would such a simple little barbed dart be so unique? 13. No sword fighting has perfect viewpoint like fight in ep 1. Never felt like I could see any fight as well as that one in any movie.
Some highlights:
Obi-Wan flying around the asteroid belt around Geonosee (or whatever it's called) Huge end battle Jango Fett Yoda fights Palpatine creating civil war and influencing everyone around him to like and manipulating Anakin (guy keeps busy) Jar Jar was not annoying this timeC3PO was pretty funny Clever hints about Anakin becoming Vader (helmet shadows and the machine stapling his arm down and adding circuits to a part that he's stuck under, I thought he might even want to slice off his own arm)
Overall:
I liked this film better than Eps 1 or 6. I thought the action was very good and the plot was interesting, though I would have liked a little more explanation on what people were trying to achieve, how they planned, etc. There was nothing so obviously annoying or marketable as the Ewoks or Jar Jar Binks being a bungling dumbass and it didn't have any dialogue as bad as the Leia telling Luke to run away instead of facing his destiny speech in ROTJ. I forgive much of the flat delivery b/c I think that's what Lucas gets, he's not a great director, and hey, I was entertained despite it all. This film is unquestionably better than TPM. I was never a huge Star Wars fan, but I did like the ANH for much of its fun, and TESB is still one of my favorite movies for being so well done overall. I thought the action in ROTJ was good, but this film has much better action and I think is overall a better film. It obviously rides on the coattails of its predecessors for much of its interesting lines (repeated in this one) and is well received because it is quite a bit better than TPM.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the beginning of a real separatist movement (The Rebels), what becomes of the clone army (storm troopers?), when the Mandelorian Guard comes into play (Boba Fett's group, army type), how look is fully seduced to the dark side, when the Jedi council finds out Anni slaughtered a Tuskan Rider settlement, and what happens with Anakin, Padme, their kids and Dooku/Sidious.
Overall, good job Lucas, you've improved everything and directed better than other Star Wars film thus far (Kasdan did ANH, Irvin Kirshner did TESB). Work on the dialogue, delivery, and those obviously fake CGI/matte painting scenes, and you'll be even better, possibly repeating the glory that was TESB.