4 out of 10 - Still 1 chance left to get it right **Spoilers**

Rating: 4/10 (11 June 2002)

I am not a hardcore Star Wars fan. I cannot recite the lines from the original trilogy. However, I am a fan of the original 3 movies. I saw The Phantom Menace for the first time only a few months ago and I had to turn it off after the first hour and take a break. That is how boring I found it to be.
Upon seeing the trailers for Attack of the Clones, I thought it would be a good one. When I went to see it, I was pleased at how well it started, with the explosion and the chase at night in the hover crafts. However, once Anakin and Padme started the 'romance' thing, my concentration just kind of faded, until the last 40 minutes or so with the good action sequences. If it had not been for the long middle, the film would have been so much better. I guess the love story was needed as an element to explain the rest but, it could have been a lot better. That was the good thing about Han Solo and Leia, they were believable, and the relationship was not forced. This one seemed very forced and I have a hard time believing that they could have fallen in love that quickly. In my opinion, it could have been resolved by better acting. Natalie Portman is a good actress from what I hear but in this film, she was cardboard, as was Hayden. He didn't convince me as a developing, masterful Jedi. I didn't like Luke Skywalker that much but his character was fun to watch and he was convincing as the Jedi master. All of the acting was lackluster. Although, I think Ewan did well as Obi-Wan. His was probably the best out of all of them, him and Christopher Lee as Dooku.
I have always been a fan of special effects but this one kind of crossed the line, in that a lot of the things looked very fake. Dialog was very poor. Some might argue that it was not that great in the original trilogy but the original trilogy was made over 20 years ago, when that kind of dialog was considered good. I was disappointed that Yoda was digital. Some of his fight scenes were good but once he started doing the flips, that was it. I will never get used to his style of talking...'Begun the clone war has...' He seemed to do a lot more of that in this one than he did in Empire or Return.
What was good about the film? The last 40 minutes or so with the battle was good. I liked some of the links with the original: Uncle Owen, the Imperial March after Anakin had slain the sand people, to name a few. However, I am still waiting for them to explain the inconsistencies in this new trilogy when compared to the originals. I also think the third one will have a LOT of gaps to fill and a lot of loose ends to tie up. Perhaps they should get Irvin Kershner (Empire) to direct. He knows how to direct and he can make a good story. I also think the digital stuff should take a bit of a break too. As the line above states, 'One more chance.'