Outstanding technically but emotionally distant

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2011)

While a outstandingly accomplished film technically, the film suffers from some inconsistent performances from the lead actors leading to a lack of audience involvement with the characters.
The story is set ten years after the events in Episode 1, and this affords Lucas the opportunity to make some changes to the characters. Anakin is now 19-20 years old, and he is now a 'rebelling against authority' type character. While in itself not a problem, the decision , for relative newcomer Hayden Christensen to play him as bratty is wrong and leads to the character coming across as unsympathetic , bland, and annoying. Also it seems that Christensen cannot seem to get a clear view of the character's trajectory within the story. As a result, his performance is uneven. In some scenes he is fine (primarily on the scenes set on Tatooine), but his performance seems unsubtle and broad, particularly when in more intimate romantic scenes with Natalie Portman. The decision for the Padme character to play a senator is a much better one, and in that regard Portman's performance is much better this time around and draws an appropriate parallel with Carrie Fisher from the original trilogy. She comes off the much stronger of the two performances when up against Christensen. Unfortunately she is saddled with having to act in a very formal and constrained way, with overtly theatrical and clichéd dialogue that is similar to that of films from the 1930s and 1940s, though in some scenes Portman is clearly trying to bring a more natural take to her character. The decision to move away from the naturalistic acting style on the original trilogy was, in my view a major mistake and alienates an older audience from getting emotionally and viscerally involved in the film. Ewan McGregor's performance this time is less constrained than Episode I, and his character is more central to the story. While not as charismatic as Neeson's performance in Episode 1 it is nevertheless solid. Samuel Jackson has fun effectively playing Jedi Master Samuel Jackson, in a more important and involving role. Temuera Morrison is actually pretty good in a small part as bounty hunter Jango Fett. However, the most impressive human performances are of in two supporting roles, with veteran actor Christopher Lee as Count Dooku, and Australian actor Jack Thompson as Cliegg Lars.
It is a relief that Jar Jar Binks character is very much in the background, albeit some of his bungling antics seem to have been transferred to C3P0. Like episode 1, the best performances are digital characters. Andy Secombe is great as Watto again, albeit in a smaller role. However the best performance overall, is Frank Oz , in collaboration with Rob Coleman's ILM animation team in recreating Yoda, now as an entirely digital character. The character is well embedded in the story. His anxiety of what is happening to the galaxy around him is conveyed well, as is the character's growing frustration with not being able to accurate assess who or what is behind the collapsing of the republic. His character's insight in the heat of battle makes him part of the films exciting climax, and a confrontation with Count Dooku, while thrilling, is far too brief.
In fact, while the visual effects are for the most part outstanding, lead by Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll and Ben Snow, there are nevertheless a few problems. The digital work in some scenes in my view, goes too far, with sets and whole environments created in the computer when a better balance of digital effects, live action, models, well designed sets and real locations work best. Not surprisingly, some of the Naboo scenes in this film work better because of a better balance between real locations and digital effects (shot in Australia & Italy) and, as per Episode 1, the segment of the film set on Tatooine (shot in Tunisia), while shorter this time around feels more involving because the high quality visual fx, meshing with real locations feels stronger. Interestingly, this part of the story is well written and underpinned by the excellent supporting performances already mentioned, as well as being Christensen's strongest part of the film. Geonosis while very impressive in parts, notably the action sequences, does feel too much like an animation in places. The feeling is that the film was being used moreas a testing of new technology, with filming shot on digital cameras,and Lucas wanting to push the visual effects as far as they can go, rather than trying to optimise the visual effects as part of the overall storytelling experience.
As in keeping with the Star Wars films, sound design and effects are excellent, led by veteran Lucas collaborator Ben Burtt. Burtt also served as film editor, working with Lucas. While some of the action sequences are brilliantly edited, most of the dialogue sequences, and some plot based sequences feel pedestrian and un-involving and the pace of the film in these sequences, sadly and unexpectedly for a Star Wars film drags.
Production design by Gavin Bouquet is excellent, even if the actual building of the sets is in a computer. As usual John Williams score is first rate, but this time is unable to fully distract or carry you through the less effective parts of the film. Overall, apart from some excellent individual sequences, such as Tatooine and a series of action sequences towards the end of the film, the film makes viewer feel too distant and uninvolved in the proceedings, despite some clever plotting, impressive visual fx and entertaining set pieces towards the film's climax.
While the least impressive of the prequels, and weaker than the original series, it is nevertheless more interesting and entertaining than Episode VII, which in my view is, despite the hype and huge box office, the weakest of the saga films to date.