IT'S BACK!

Rating: 10/10 (16 May 2002)

.. the not so family-friendly violence.. the lack of Jar-Jar .. the horrific, dark moods.. the long-lasting, tranquil landscape sequences.. This time, George Lucas has let the CG-people take care of the details in stead of the plot! Excellent.. and how many details there are! Good work, CG-people!! Your work is in the scenes, and when you do that well - and only do that - it's so awesome, nothing short of art!
OK; this film has it's flaws (like all the SW-movies actually), for instance, C-3PO's hilarously neurotic character is exaggerated - to the point where it's far too much.. why, I don't know. Lucas seemed more restrictive in the cutting room on the earlier films.
Yoda is also portrayed on the boundaries of what might be considered disrespectful, but it actually works so well! I mean, he is (one of) the most powerful jedi. Everyone on the premiere started applauding Yoda, and I did too. Excellent stuff! :) I'm going to watch THAT scene again..
But there are other flaws - for instance, the romantic scenes with Anakin & Amydala were far, faar too cliched & romantic! I started laughing :D But it worked. The robot factory - where fast paced action timed between menacing machines, was attempted - failed a bit and became VERY "computergame"-like.
Anakin's transition towards evil is very well handled, both scriptwise and actorwise. Also, the annoying kid from SW1 is given new depth as we see he wasn't supposed to be simply "the cool kid" - moreover arrogant and ambitious.
Anyway: the film doesn't have the "hurried" feel that the Phantom Menace had. It had a lot of good stuff in stead. Lots of moods! Good moods and dark moods. Excellent! Good action scenes. REAL good ones.
Another film like SW1, and the series would have been screwed. I would then have had to ignore the I-II-III's and just go for the originals. However, this saves it all. It really does! Woohooo! Good work, Lucas! Get it even better for the next one, and it'll be the best in the series (hoping for all 9 to be made.. :)~ 9/10