Some Ask Why - I ask Why Not?

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2002)

OK - so the title sounds campy, the dialogue is cheesy, and the production is designed to look larger than life. Now, are you ready for the really brilliant part? THAT'S THE POINT!!! (Note, some spoilers ahead, nothing too critical) If the first 20 minutes were any indication, then this might have been the greatest movie I've ever seen - if the first 20 minutes, highlighted by a speeder chase reminiscent of the "Star Tours" rides at the Disney Theme Parks, were any indication. Once the initial adrenaline rush fades, the next hour of the movie flips back and forth between a halfway intriguing detective story with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and a molasses-paced "love" story involving Anakin Skywalker and Padme. The whole point is to try and unravel who's out to kill Padme and destroy the Republic. The dialogue constructing most of these scenes was subpar, but not so nauseating that it killed the film. Maybe I'm not as prone to loathe a lot of said dialogue, since most of what Anakin threw out there sounds like what I would say: something awkward, naive, and juvenile. For the action scenes, the writing was no better or worse than "The Matrix" or "Spider-Man", especially when you consider each action scene in "Spider-Man" involved the stereotypical witness to the destruction pointing into the sky and screaming, "LOOK, IT'S SPIDER-MAN!!" Nevertheless, I enjoyed the film - the sum effect was easily able to outduel some of the slow parts, which would be just about any scene involving Natalie Portman. She looks good and all (though I do wonder if cable comes standard with those hairdos, of if she has to pay extra), but she just seems stiff and detached from everybody else. Example: near the end, when she finally decides to throw up her hands and say, `Sure Anakin, let's fall in love' (right before they're scheduled to be made into chop liver), she says `I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.' At least Anakin has the good sense to respond with a look of total confusion, letting us know we're not alone. Maybe that's her fault; maybe it's Lucas' writing. Anyway, you can spend the film dissecting its `deep' dialogue and characters, or you can take in the scope and greatness of the design and effects, not to mention how incredibly badass Samuel L. Jackson is, and that Ewan McGregor holds his own as Obi Wan. The two droids (C-3PO and R2-D2) are once again in trouble which makes for good humor, and the design of the film is the work of some freakin' geniuses. Top it all off with the five coolest words of any Star Wars installment: Yoda in a fight scene. So some people like to ask `Why'. Me, I ask `Why not?'. Movies are not about popularity (well, sometimes), not politics (well, sometimes), not money (well, all the time.) Sometimes, it's OK just to want a picture that gives you two hours of adventure and suspense in a darkened theater, an escape if you will. Such an attitude is a hallmark of the cheesy Flash Gordon serials of long ago, which planted the idea for a grand space opera in the mind of George Lucas. If what you really need from your sci-fi fantasy adventures is deep thought, character development, and `top of the line' acting, then I suggest you see a Star Trek movie. If I had to assign grades, I'd go 8/10, and I'll see it again.