Meh... A good setup for Ep. III, I suppose...

Rating: Null/10 (22 August 2002)

Finally saw AOTC last night. Not bad. It was a Star Wars movie, alright. I enjoyed some parts of it. On the whole, I'd say it was as good as Phantom Menace and even better than Return of the Jedi. But still, somewhat lacking, as Phantom Menace was, in terms of overall excitement. I found myself yawning a few times there, and it seemed telling that though the theater was packed with kids, there was no fanfare among them. When I saw Star Wars and Empire, there was a tangible and very audible excitement there. I think the effects and creatures and spaceships flying through space just aren't all that impressive anymore, especially when you don't have a really compelling story and characters to root for within all of that.
Things I liked: No denyin' that Yoda with the light saber was very cool. It almost seemed incongruous, though, that he hobbles up on a cane, then flips around at breakneck speed with his light saber, then hobbles away on a cane again. I guess he just saves it up for the saberin'! I also liked a few of the series threads that were thrown in there, like when Obi-Wan tells Anakin- "Someday you'll be the death of me." I think the development of Anakin's dark side was done pretty well. The sequence in the blast furnace place where they were making droids was both exciting and clever. Kind of neat that both George Lucas and Spielberg had similar scenes in their latest films, with Spielberg's "Minority Report" automobile manufacturing fight scene. I think the best thing about this film may be that it seems to set up the next film to be a real barnburner in many ways.
Things I didn't like: I agree with some critics who called the dialogue utilitarian, and that there too much of it. It was like watching C-Span at some points. I understand the concept of what's going on, and it's not that it's disinteresting, but as plots go, it doesn't exactly engender much excitement. Too much happened that was expected, and very little that was out of the ordinary, in the way of the action sequences and effects. I really think it's telling that as intricate as a lot of those action and effects sequences were, they don't seem to have much impact anymore. Flying through the asteroid field... That was done in Empire already, and it was new and exciting then, but just ho-hum now. You see some strange looking creatures in some bar, and at this point it's like, "okay, whatever". But in the Star Wars cantina it was pretty damn cool. I know you can't really compare your perception from now to then, and these movies may be introducing these kinds of things to a new generation (although kids today have seen similar effects and action stunts in dozens of other contemporary movies), but I still think there were more compelling stories and characters in the first two movies, by far. But hey, it's the world of Star Wars, nonetheless, and it's a cool world, to be sure. But this movie, even moreso than Phantom Menace, seemed just like more of the same. I also had to conclude that Natalie Portman was miscast in that role. She's beautiful, yes, but man, is her delivery weak and monotone... Part of that is the dialogue, which rarely seems to be character specific, or have any life to it. One person says something that another could say easily as well, with the exception being Yoda, who just says everything backwards, and throws in some wisdom here and there. C-3PO had about the ONLY humor in the whole movie, and it was groaners. I don't recall Star Wars having much humor, but this one needed it more than that.