A great disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (17 May 2002)

***SPOILERS***
I am a big fan of the Star Wars series but I have to say that Episode II was an extreme disappointment. I feel that Lucas has ruined his own franchise by betraying the most appealing elements of the earlier and latter films.

But first the positives, the computer digital images of landscapes, droids, towering cities etc are very impressive. Perhaps the best computer-created scenery ever to be seen in the cinema. But that's it.
The negatives: the acting is appalling. I suppose Lucas was going for the space-opera like dialogue, and a little cheese is fine especially since much of the Star Wars movies is full of it. But there were lines of dialogue in that movie that did not sound like they came from a Star Wars universe, the lines were so corny and cliche-ridden that they made me cringe and say to myself "what on earth is George doing?". Back to the acting, Christiansen is terrible - he delivers the lines with way too much feeling, they don't seem real and genuine at all. I suppose it's not entirely his fault since he didn't write the script himself. And as I had expected, what on earth was George Lucas doing hiring Samuel L. Jackson? All I could think was, that's Shaft, that's Jules from Pulp Fiction wielding a purple lightsaber, speaking his Jedi lines as if he was Dirty Harry. That was abysmal casting, as was the casting of New Zealanders. Temuera Morrison is great but he seems out of place in this movie. To my mind, Lucas has sacrificed story-line for special effects and high-octane action sequences. The action sequences are indeed impressive however, especially the scene in the arena when all the jedi knights come to the rescue of Kenobi, Skywalker and Amidala. Perhaps the best action scene in the entire series. The chase through Coruscant is also heart-pounding. But the weakness in the film is that it doesn't encircle these fight scenes with a credible and engaging story-line, something I believe Lucas achieved in all the other Star Wars films to date no matter how ridiculous they may have seemed. That was the beauty of the earlier films. Episode II, is just plain crass. And finally, the worst part about the movie of all, was the decision to make Master Yoda into a kung-fu lightsaber wielding fighting machine. To me, Lucas has broken one of the number one rules in the Star Wars universe - he broke the mystery surrounding Yoda - in all the other movies we see Yoda and think of him much like a serene and meditative buddha, midget-sized to make us wonder how is this little guy one of the most powerful jedi in the universe? The strength of the Yoda character was that he represented complete inner peace and strength. We did not need to see him move, or for that matter somersault in the air. The crowd burst out laughing when Yoda fought Dooku, especially when Yoda posed his snaring dragon-type pose like kung-fu exponents practise, but I suspect the laughing was more to the likes of "omigod what is this?!", in other words the audience didn't take the movie too seriously, but I did and had great expectations for the movie. There is little character development for Count Dooku as well, he is only really introduced at the end of the movie, which is bad-timing since he's the villain and has to fight the good guys. It's like he just turned up to a prize fight and he found out he was on the draw cards. The melodramatic scenes between Skywalker and Amidala were way too serious and soppy, nothing like Hans Solo and Leia. This was perhaps the least credible part of the film, I was simply not convinced that they were in love with each other. Anyone who believes they are compelling need therapy.
I cannot think to the like of me why Lucas made Episode II in this way, to my mind he has clearly betrayed the beauty of his earlier films and I am no longer excited to see Episode III. 3/10