Lucas seems to be getting back to Star Wars proper...

Rating: 7/10 (22 May 2002)

I thought this movie was good. After the terrible disappointment of Episode 1, I was worried about this one. Nine years old when I saw Star Wars in 1977, I've been a long time fan.
The story was at times a little disjoint, and still the characters and story are not quite as good as the first three movies. However, it was so much better than Episode I, my hope is again high for Episode 3.
I was a little puzzled by some obvious errors in the movie. For example, Amidala is cut across her back severely before the main clone vs droid battle. However, in every scene after that, her back is unscarred.
There were some scenes where footprints in the sand appear AFTER the step is taken, and the sand looks more like wet mud than sand the way the prints form. I found this relatively low-quality special effects amid the other outstanding FX somewhat strange. In one scene with Amidala and a clone warrior, I can't imagine why it was even done with computer graphics, when real sand would have worked fine, and, ahem, looked like sand.
Then there is C3PO's head trick. I thought it was cool. However, his head seemed to have no control over the droid body it was on, as if the intelligence of the droid was in the body. Why then, did the mis-placed droid head have complete control over his body? I thought that was a bit inconsistent on a technical level, but it was funny otherwise.

Of course, things like that are relatively minor, but it's disappointing in a movie from a studio famous for it's attention to detail. Someone missed a few things in the editing process methinks.
On the bright side, I saw the acting as being far better in this episode. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher were great in the first Star Wars movies, and this time I felt the acting was on a par with them. They made the movies for me the first time around.
I especially liked Jango Fett. It's really too bad he was on the wrong side. I think this was a great preliminary story for Boba Fett, one that I hope to see expanded on in the third episode.
I'm not fully sold on Yoda as a sword fighter, but it was interesting. Maybe I should say, it was not the way I expected him to fight. Then again, I never really could make up my mind about that in the first place. So many questions over the years about how Yoda could be a jedi warrior, answered. Judge him by his size indeed!
Another great character was Obi-wan's friend in the greasy-spoon. Another were the tall aliens running the cloning project. Those parts of the movie were excellent.
I think my biggest worry was Jar-Jar Binks. Mercifully, his role was very small. I hated him in Episode I, and I can't help but feel like negative feedback from fans is why his role was so limited this time around. His animation was better too, as he didn't appear so jumpy and out-of-sync with the world as he did in Episode I.
I noticed a subtle change in Padme. Her dress on Tatooine was much like Leia, including the mini side-bun hair-style. The forward-reference was perfect.
All in all, a good movie and while I didn't get the epic feeling I got from the first three, it's great to see it come out so well. I can hardly wait until 2005 to see the sequel.