More enjoyable than I expected

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2002)

I walked into this movie expecting at best a couple hours of air-conditioned comfort, at worst another painfully dull experience as Phantom Menace turned out to be. Surprisingly, I was quite entertained. Much in this film harkened back to 'The Empire Strikes Back', in that it has texture, and even some dimension--along with incredibly improved visuals. The reviews are spot on in this regard; the movie is stunningly beautiful and feels 'real', unlike the video-game feel of 'Menace'. I'll say right now that the love story aspect was stillborn; in fact, nearly every scene featuring Padme and/or Anakin was as flat as a day-old beer. The digital performers out-acted them on every level (Jar-Jar aside--even his brief appearances were too much). Despite the overall clunkiness of the story, I felt something I thought wasn't possible with a Star Wars movie any more: involvement. (SPOILER: I especially enjoyed the return to Tatooine and the moisture farm, seeing Luke's future guardians as youths, in the familiar settings from the first movie. END SPOILER) While most of the dialogue was expectedly painful, there were a few chuckles, and C-3P0 has the best scenes he's ever had. The obligatory 'big battle' at the end was everything that the battle at the end of 'Menace' was not. I'm glad I gave in and saw this on the big screen. It's not a great movie, but it has many fine moments and bodes well for the next installment--as long as George has his romance jones licked, that is.