Better than Episode One, but plot-holes need to be resolved

Rating: Null/10 (20 May 2002)

Much in the same vein as Episode 1, there were many scenes which, if removed, would've made the movie much better. However, there were fewer of these than there were in E1, and overall I thought E2 was *much* better than E1. I didn't think 3-PO was all that funny, but as a forced comic-relief character he wasn't nearly as annoying as Jar Jar. It's also ironic/very Lucas that Jar Jar is indirectly responsible for ultimately creating the Empire.
I liked the little boy who played Boba Fett; you can already tell he's going to be an a$$hole. And I thought they did a good job finally having (Jango) Fett do something. And he finally used his flame-thrower! :)
Obi-Wan was solid; so was Dooku. Anakin/Padme were pretty lame, as were all of those horrible scenes on Padme's homeworld. Take every scene on that planet out of E1 and E2 and both movies are better for it. Anakin almost redeemed himself when he slaughtered those Sandpeople, but the whining afterword kind-of spoiled it. And what is Padme thinking falling in love with this psychopath? Yoda, needless to say, kicked a$$.
There are still several large continuity plot-holes that need to be resolved between the original Trilogy and the two new movies.
Anakin to Padme: "Hey darling, why didn't you freakin' buy my mother out of slavery ten years ago?"
Why do the neither of the droids remember Tatooine, Obi-Wan, or Owen/Bertru Lars? A memory wipe at some point is really the only answer ...

But more to the point, why do Owen Lars/Obi-Wan not remember anything about these droids at the beginning of Episode 4 (New Hope)? I know it's been a long time between E2 and E4, but c'mon. Owen could say something like: "Gee Luke, that's funny, when your father was here 20 years ago, he had two droids with him that were exactly like these two." Also, why does Obi-Wan decide to hide Luke on Tatooine knowing full-well that Anakin not only grew up there, but has in fact been to the Lars' house before?

I carefully watched (geek alarm) the first hour of E4 last night, and Obi-Wan states that he doesn't remember owning any droids (despite R2D2 claiming to be Obi-Wan's property). 3-P0 clearly says that he doesn't know what planet he's on, that his first job was as a "botchi translator for binary load lifters" and that his (and R2's) previous owner was Captain Antilles. He implies multiple times that he and R2 have been working together for some time. Also, Obi-Wan is referred to as "General Kenobi" by Leia, and Obi-Wan tells Luke that his father "wanted him to have" the lightsaber. Just some things to consider.
Of course, my explanation is still that Lucas had no idea he was going to make any more movies after E4 and that therefore everything he's done since then is revisionism ... which of course gets harder to pull off the more you try to incorporate it. Especially with Lucas' unnecessary style of trying to make *everything* tie together.
Finally, I still maintain that the stormtroopers in the original Trilogy are NOT clones.