A major disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (8 June 2002)

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
AOTC is way inferior to The Phantom Menace.The first film in the new series was hardly anything to rival the classic Sci-Fi movies of the late 1970s and early 1980s,but compared to this labourious,droning dud,it doesn't seem so bad after all.
Lets begin with the plot (what there is of it) which drags on forever and has no real coherent structure to follow.Too much is attempted to be established too early on,and it becomes information overload.
Nevertheless,this is a Summer blockbuster and plot was never considered an essential ingredient in these ever.So,with all the on screen talent involved,you'd expect the acting to be great.But sadly,no.Everyone involved turns in blank,unemoting performances.But to be fair to them,so would anyone working with a script as dull and cliched as this.And all who act in it,including Samuel L. Jackson,Ewan McGregor,Natalie Portman and Christopher Lee,are barely seen on screen for longer than a few moments,leaving not enough time to establish them and relate to them.We learn more about each of them individually towards the end,but the ending drags on so much that all the individual twists and information they try to cram in becomes too much,and you're just screaming for them to leave it till Episode 3 already.
This is really proof positive that a film can have all the brilliant special effects in the world,but if the story sucks,the audience will become nauseated.**