Return of the Lucas?

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2002)

I was one of the many Star Wars purists who was disappointed by The Phantom Menace. For me, it was impossible to picture anyone deriving the same joy from it as I did from Star Wars: A New Hope, and that seemed like a sad thing. With such a great legend to work with, I really felt Lucas could have delivered something worthy of his fairy tale, and he simply missed the boat.
Attack of the Clones still has major flaws in my opinion, but has infinitely more "magic" in it than Phantom Menace. Lucas appears to be regaining some sort of handle on the franchise, and is getting a feel for what a good science fiction/fantasy movie needs. He has reduced the number of what I call "humanisms": "hip" phrases like "are you brain dead?", "that's gotta hurt", or "roger, roger", or elements like radio-voice announcers at a sports stadium, or a predominantly English-speaking alien world that has very Earthly accents, all of which you would only hear or see on Earth, instead of in a galaxy far, far away.
The story is also more adult oriented, so instead of child-like alliances between the humans and gungans on Naboo, and their playful little war with the droid army, we get a serious look at the political divisions and the social gravity of real, dirty, and ugly warfare. AOTC far more effectively hints at the pain, sacrifice and death that is to envelop the Republic in the years to come. So maybe Lucas is remembering that kids will still appreciate (and love) movies that don't necessarily talk down to them.
AOTC is not perfect though, by any stretch of the imagination.

The romance scenes between Anakin and Padme are BRUTAL, and I'm not saying that because I'd rather be seeing lightsabers. The "chemistry" is just not there, and it isn't helped by the dialogue that sounds like horrible horrible poetry. Anakin may be smitten, but I find it hard to believe a young Jedi would talk like a stereotypical Parisian artist.
There are still some "humanisms" scattered around. Obi Wan's underground connection is one of the most unimaginative stereotypes Lucas has come up with yet, and the liberal use of puns in C-3PO's "hilarious" comic relief scenes are scarcely better than James Bond or Schwarzenegger.
And I'm still irritated with Lucas' need to tie every single character together, and that continues in Episode II. When is C-3PO's hard drive going to be erased? Or is he just going to forget that he was created on Tatooine by Anakin Skywalker, and lived with Luke's family? I'm frankly surprised we haven't met Sam and Helen Solo and their brash son Han AND his pet wookie Chewie yet.
But I digress. I'm still giving AOTC an 7.5/10. It has bad points, but I've been unnecessarily focused on them. There is a lot of greatness to the movie, and those moments will be better left unmentioned. Onward to Episode III!