A positive review from a "casual fanatic" as well as his more skeptical girlfriend.

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2002)

I wasn't really old enough to care about what the critics were saying about the original trilogy. Nor did I have access to sites like this where mass amounts of reviews from print critics as well as from Joe-punchclock are tallied up, indexed, pushed, filed, stamped, briefed, debriefed, and numbered.
I shouldn't care now, and to be honest, I still dont. But it still kind of smarts to read some of the avalanche of bad reviews. Not that I'm unaware of the fact that no movie gets complete acceptance, especially not a sci-fi fantasy film, and even more especially one that's a sequel to a series that so many people love. But wow, why are some of these reviews so bitter? Why are so many people acting like someone poured sugar in their mom's gas tank while watching this? Deep down, I know the reason why, ever since Empire, people began assuming that it wasn't Lucas' series to control, and that it was in his best interest to let other people write and or direct further chapters.
This is a sentiment I dont agree with. Heck, I liked Empire too but I wouldn't want to sit through four more episodes just like it. I might as well just watch the Star Trek movies if that's what I was looking for.
To me, what's good about Star Wars is how every film is the same concept filtered through slightly different lenses. In my mind (and sometimes I get the feeling like I'm alone on this one) I DONT EXPECT EACH EPISODE TO LOOK AND PLAY LIKE THE OTHER ONES!!! I've always seen the individual episodes as chapters of a comic book where either the writers and/or artists differ from month to month. Things may look different, and plotlines may seem altered, but the title of the book (um..movie) stays the same and the overall concept remains because of Lucas.
When I came out of The Phantom Menace on it's first night, I noted that it wasnt what I was expecting, but I liked it. The first thing I said to my friends when we got to the car was that I would be happy if each of the new episodes was completely different from each other. And after seeing ATOC I was pretty happy to see that's exactly what Lucas is trying to do. See how each film differs....
Episode 1: A glossy comic book full of kid-oriented action and humor, where a young boy gets the chance to be more than what fate has handed him, with action scenes that rarely involve the death of human characters. While in the background, misty complex conspiracies begin to form.
Episode II: A meditation on what can happen when a gifted person uses his or her abilities go to misuse through greed and or unchecked ambition, or let themselves be manipulated by people with different agendas. Also, the first inkling of long held institutions realizing that the principles they once stood for are being eroded away.
Episode IV: The Template; A young man with no future gets a chance at being more than he is, or if you like, is thrust into an adventure that he was always fated to take part in. Meanwhile, the issues of governmental corruption get laid to rest as The Empire makes that corruption The Rule.
Episode V: A Pausing; Good characters get routed early on, and flee to safe areas, only to meet defeat at every turn despite their best efforts. Kind of like watching a basketball team suffer a heartbreaking loss in overtime. Like ATOC, what makes it good is that it's protagonists (who usually appear as a fighting unit) go though long portions of the film separated from each other.
Episode IV; A slam-bang conclusion where beat down and taxed out rebels make a desperate attack, and a hero must make a choice between his past and future, while a former hero must make a choice between his "father" and son. Slammed for not really advancing the plot, this is the end of the series; Where are you going to advance the plot to?
Long winded dissertation aside, I'm getting to my MAIN POINT. I took my girlfriend to see this film (yes, a star wars fan can have a girlfriend) and was quite nervous about what she would think. She's a more old-school fan who loves the original Star Wars, thinks Empire is genius, and dismisses ROTJ as one lone battle scene. As for The Phantom Menace, she didn't care for it at first, but she's come around a bit after seeing it a few more times.
To me, she represents a lot of SW fans; the kind who don't go to conventions, will call a spade a spade, and slightly distrust Lucas's intentions for the saga. I was delightfully surprised when after the credits started rolling her eyes lit up and she admitted that it's one of the best so far!
She was even impressed by the expected battle at the end, noting the strange irony of watching Yoda ride to the rescue with a horde of stormtroopers at his back.
As for Yoda fighting, yeah it's a bit cheezy, but HUGE portions of the saga so far have been slightly corny anyway. It's kind of funny reading some reviewers (especially Roger Ebert, who it should be noted disliked ATOC for the same reasons he liked TPM) bending themselves over backwards to not just go with it and enjoy the scene, babbling some weird theory about how CG making the unreal real dampens the imagination. Whatever. Watching Yoda battle Christopher Lee has to be a landmark of some kind in the minds of long time Horror/sci-fi fans who have spent years respecting both characters and actors in the scenario.
And the melancholic ending nails that confused "uh, we won..didn't we? Right?" confusion that Empire was praised for so many years ago.
Sure the acting and dialogue is a bit iffy at time, but it's certainly not bad enough to ruin the film. People who send in reviews posting line by line the dialouge that they didn't care for really need to get lives. And hey, at least there are lines to remember, good or bad. Not like Lord of the Rings, where months after seeing it me and my friends still don't know the difference between "big guy with beard" or "effeminate dude with arrows", let alone anything they might have said.
Ahhh. sorry. I was going to try to get though this without revealing myself as a LOTR non fan (God, it was long and pretentious, wasn't it?)
So, in closing, I'd like to bring it back to the girlfriend thing. If you are a casual fan like her who likes ATOC (or even more so, liked TPM) and is feeling guilty about it; Take care, there are plenty of non-freaky SW fans who like the prequel trilogy so far, and are more than willing to place it in with the originals.