Incompetence or Genius?

Rating: 6/10 (21 May 2002)

I was almost as disappointed with Episode II, as I was with Episode VI. I only liked it slightly better, because the special effects were a lot cleaner--what would you expect with close to 20 years more computing power and 100 million, or so, more in budget (not inflation adjusted).
I kept asking myself what was wrong, and this is my analysis:
1) This is Star WARS, we did not get the impression there was a real war going on, until late into the movie. In all the other good episodes, there was a space fleet, actively engaged in battle early into the film--and usually after our heroes.
2) The promised romance had virtually no plot significance (for this episode) and was not particularly passionate or well done. I know Star Wars is for kids, but George a lot of your fans are know well passed their twentys and thirtys! Throw us a bone why don't you?
3) R2-D2 and C3PO had virtually no relation to the plot and were just thrown in for comic relief (too much criticism of Jar-Jar?).
4) Nobody bad wore a mask throughout, without revealing a recognizable
"human face". This wildly reduced the "menace" facing our protagonists. Exactly who was the antagonist here anyway--Boba Fett?
5) Where were the machines that inconveniently malfunctioned at inappropriate times? This reduced the fun and perceived danger.
6) Blatant rip offs of elements from other popular science fiction franchises--(I know he does this a lot, but at least he used a little imagination previously). Padme's battle outfit was almost an exact copy of the Defense Directorate uniforms from "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century".
7) "Star Wars" has almost always been the exposition of stealth and cunning versus blatant force and power, but this is increasingly downplayed. I guess this may be to show why the Jedi fell from grace.
One outstanding, and disappointing, aspect was watching Yoda finally
yield his light sabre--What a hoot.
I hope George can recover from this one in Episode III. Apparently, it will be his last shot (yeah--right!)