Better than Episode 1

Rating: 7/10 (14 May 2002)

Saw Episode II - AOTC at a special showing. Definitely better than Episode 1. Action sequences and sets are great, which has been George Lucas' strength. However, his weakness is using actors who came with good reputations - Samuel L. Jackson, Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor has won praises for other movies before this but their acting in this movie leaves some room for improvement. Hayden Christensen just tries too hard but falls far short of say, Elijah Wood's performance in LOTR: FOTR. It says a lot for the acting when one of the best sequences had Yoda doing a Jackie Chan turn.
That said, as a package, AOTC is more in line with Episodes IV to VI, where the audience will feel more involved with the Star Wars universe developments. More non-Star Wars fans are going to watch this by word-of-mouth.