Too many special effects, too little character development.

Rating: 5/10 (17 May 2002)

What made the original Star Wars films so endearing was the colorful characters and the great chemistry between them. Han Solo, the smarmy, overconfident, reckless smuggler; Luke, the immature adventure seeker; Leia, the overly-reserved, but quick-witted and sometimes temperamental princess; Chewbacca, the clumsy, loyal, easily frustrated sidekick who can't be understood by anyone but Han; Vader, the enigmatic epitome of evil. Hell even minor characters like Salacious Crumb (the monkey-pet of Jabba the Hutt) were colorful. The main characters also changed noticably a lot as the trilogy progressed, and that's why we loved them and wanted to know what happened to them...Han became less of a loner and realized some causes were worth fighting for; Luke became less adventurous, more introspective, and more scared of his own destiny; Leia let down her defenses towards Han and matured into one of the main leaders of the Rebellion; and Vader began showing signs of humanity towards his son.
None of that magic exists in Episode 2. Many people blame this on bad acting, but it's not bad acting. Heck, the first Star Wars had some pretty questionable acting, but it still worked. In Episode 2, the problem is that the dialogue is just far too rigid and formal for any actor to be able to emote genuinely while saying it. Because of all this, it just seems like we don't really see the characters develop...they just tell us they're developing. We, in turn, don't develop any sense of affinity towards the characters in Episode 2 like we do with the original movies because they're just not very human. It's those little, sometimes funny idosyncracies and witty bantering that make the characters seem real, after all...like Han shouting "Move it, Goldenrod!", or Leia kissing Luke just to make Han jealous, or Luke shouting "Threepio!? Where could he be!!?". The only thing driving this film is action and special effects. Let's face it, Episode 2 is an action movie. But the greatest of the Star Wars movies, The Empire Strikes Back, isn't great because of super special effects...it's great because of the characters, and apparently it's slipped Lucas just how important the characters are (and the special affects AREN'T).