Excellent from start to finish!!!

Rating: Null/10 (26 May 2002)

This movie was about 10 steps up from The Phantom Menace and ranks very close to the original Star Wars, which is my favorite of all of them. George Lucas manages to successfully interweave the elements of three type of movies: action-adventure (of course), mystery and romance.
The movie starts out with a bang and doesn't let up. It slows down a bit in the middle, but you have the mystery to keep you busy so you don't get bored.
While Ewan McGregor and Christopher Lee gave solid performances, Hayden Christiansen was the most interesting to watch and gave a standout performance. He is the epitome of a tortured and conflicted soul and you can not only hear it in his speech, but see it in his eyes and his body language. You have to understand the Jedi and look back to the first movie to see why he has the issues he does.
The only criticism I have is that I would have liked to hear more of the backstory of Christopher Lee's character to better understand his motivations.
All in all, a very worthy effort. Thank you, George Lucas, for two and a quarter hours of unadulterated fun.