Lets forget about the Phantom Menace.....

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2002)

This is worthy of the Star Wars name. I am not going to go on about the Phantom Menace as much as I'd like to. A film that when it was released did very well only because of the Star Wars badge and not because it was any good.
This time round lets look at what Lucas has got right. He has captured a decent story line that is very simple but effective and likens itself to the original trilogy. He has created some stunning actions sequences and set pieces some of which nobody else could have dreamed of and he has got rid of Jar Jar Binks (well almost).
The film starts very well and makes you sit back into you chair knowing that the next couple or hours are going to be very entertaining. The film moves at a decent pace and never gets too slow or too hectic. Even in the battle scenes towards the end, everything is done with the utmost clarity and accuracy and to think that people were impressed with the battles in Episode 1, it doesn't even come close to what is in this.
The dialog acting is at best a little poor, which of course is to be expected. Anyone going to see this film expecting Oscar material has never watched any of the others. And to be honest I thought Ewen McGregor was better than in Phantom Menace and the only real let down was Hayden Christensen who was trying to hard as far as I'm concerned.
A couple of minor critical points about the film are the obvious plot lines that eventually turn Anakin to Darth Vadar. He tries his hardest to show how angry he is getting, and of course we know what anger does to a Jedi. When Padme tells him that he is not `all powerful', he replies `well I should be, and one day I will be the most powerful Jedi of all' or something like that. Its laughable, I bet even he burst out laughing then when George shouted cut at that point. The other is the brief moments of Christopher Lee. I expected him to play a bigger part and when you watch you can see why he doesn't appear for the first hour-an-a-half because there is no need for him to be there, however I still would have liked to have seen more of him. These are obviously minor points to an otherwise very enjoyable film and I am really looking forward to the next instalment.