a fan-boys wet dream

Rating: 9/10 (2 September 2006)

Sam Jackson delivering kick ass lines then kicking ass. Ewan McGregor truly perfecting his Alec Guinness impression. The comedy double act of Artoo and Threepio reunited to great effect at last. Natalie Portman in some extremely fetching outfits. Hayden Christiensen in some of perhaps the only truly (convincing) emotional scenes of the entire saga thus far...
...and Yoda, swinging his light sabre and whirling round the screen like a Tazmanian Devil.
This is a fan-boys wet dream.
Unlike (it's claimed) many, I liked Phantom Menace, and I like this too. But whereas Phantom Menace stuck very rigidly to the structure and directing style the first trilogy had, this treads new ground. The war scenes are now actual war scenes, bordering on a documentary style at times. And the explosive last act no longer has the multiple story arcs we've come to expect (Empire, Jedi and Phantom Menace) but instead a single linear strand (A New Hope).
Lucas' reaction to all the criticism that Phantom was all politics and chatter? He's put in even more politics and chatter - this has the most complex plot yet, which makes it something special indeed. A lot of things become clearer, a lot of things become yet more mysterious (The brilliantly Machiavellian double, triple and quadruple dealings of Darth Sidious / Palpatine beg for a triumphantly evil gloat of a monologue from him somewhere in episode three).
Everyone said Phantom held the promise of a kick ass episode two. Episode two is kick ass, but it in turn holds the promise of a fantastically kick ass episode three. Glory be.