More watchable than Phantom Menace but still bad

Rating: 5/10 (25 May 2002)

Okay, it is official. The success of Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back is due in no small part to the input of Gary Kurtz, and other people who left the franchise before Return of the Jedi was completed. This left George Lucas to make all the major creative decisions, which unfortunately, were not always good choices. The Special Edition changes were mostly not good ideas, and the Phantom Menace was awful. Just awful. Attack of the Clones is an improvement(less Jar Jar helps), but it still suffers from Lucas' unfettered direction and writing. Hales could not help. The dialogue is flat and unmemorable. The acting is uninspired, lifeless. MacGregor's Obi Wan Kenobi is good, but he is much too whiney. Christensen may be a good actor(havent seen him in anything else to compare), but he comes across very bad here. And Portman--she is wonderful to look at, but she has no charisma. C3PO is an asset, but his lines are basically bad puns. And Yoda? Well, his fight scene at the end was just ridiculous. The audience I saw it with was laughing--for all the wrong reasons. Lucas apparently does not care about continuity. It was bad enough to make Darth Vader the creator of C3PO, but to find him (mild spoiler) doing the precise job that he is purchased from the Jawas to do for the very same person in ANH is just insane. (end of mild spoiler) And the biggest let down may be John Williams score. Oh, how times have changed. Maybe JW just could not get inspired by what was on the screen, but whatever the case, the score is very uninvolving. It is quite sad to see George Lucas destroy his own reputation. This film lacks the spirit that made the original films so much fun. No, they were not high brow, but they were mighty entertaining. Sadly, AOTC was not. I wont look forward to Episode 3, I just hope Lucas has the good sense to make the original trilogy available on DVD--without the SE changes.