Bashing aside... well, mostly.

Rating: 1/10 (17 May 2002)

I just saw Episode II last night, and although it will be another 3 years before I can truly comment on the first trilogy (Episodes I-III) to the original trilogy (Episodes IV-VI), I'll have a go at it since the first trilogy is almost 67% complete.
First off, it is now official in my mind that the first trilogy has the better and more complex storyline. In fact, I believe that it is far far better than the original. [And believe it or not I did not intend the pun reference to the opening line of the films.]
*SPOILER ALERT*
Watching the manipulation of Palpatine over the entire Empire is extraordinarily impressive. Evil guy we're supposed to be rooting against or not, I really admire him now and have realized that for good or bad, at this point he deserves the Republic. After Episode I, I was just impressed with him, now I believe the man to be a total genius.
The other reason I love the first trilogy is because (and of course it is needed for the set up to the original trilogy) the 'good guys' have lost big time in both movies (and you know they will have to completely crash and burn in Ep. III). However, in parts I and II, it is easily mistaken by those not paying attention (like Obi) that the good guys did save the day both times (albeit at some cost, but that's always the case). At least in Ep. II, Yoda is intelligent enough to verbally backslap Obi when he makes the comment claiming that things did come to the happy ending.
Did I hate Jar Jar in Ep. I? Heck yeah. However I did like the fact that his antics were toned down in Ep. II (he had character development over 10 years) and that he himself became completely used as a pawn in the short air time he had. Frighteningly, that means the character actually had a point to being in the movie. I still hope his purpose in Ep. III is to help increase the body count by one, but we will see.
----
Senator Jar-Jar: Why-sa you in black suit, Ani?
Darth Vader raises his hand at Jar-Jar.
Jar-Jar's head explodes.
*splut*
*thud*
Vader commences his only tap-dance number in the series on top of the body.

----
I can dream.
Flaws with Ep. II? First off, I didn't buy the love story, at least not as it was presented. I bought it a little bit more after Anakin went off to 'rescue' Shmi, because that lead to a pity reaction from Padme that I thought could blossom the romance. But the stuff before it was trite and seemed written in purely for the reason that sooner or later the two will have to conceive the characters for the original series. The dialog was poorly done, more so than the other Star Wars films (which at least still had some real personality clashes; like Leia and Han, where the one liner zings that they kept nailing each other with).
That is really my only complaint against Ep. II. So, my only suggestion George is to keep doing what you are doing, except when you get to the part in the script where you need to use these " " summarize what needs to be said and let someone else write in the actual dialog based on your notes.
Other than that, Ep. II was incredible. I especially loved the scenes involving the Fetts. It took a loved character from the original trilogy and severely expanded out everything about him.
Excellent storytelling.