Great Effects

Rating: 9/10 (2 December 2002)

The special effects were wonderful in this movie. The story was easier to follow than the first episode and the new aliens and diverse worlds were great to experience. The love story bits were something else. If Annette Funicello had a cameo during the sappy love story bits I wouldn't have been surprised. Hayden Christensen was a petulant, immature, ill-mannered little boy. He had no appeal or believability as a Jedi. I can't see how he would have lasted through any kind of rigorous training. Natalie Portman was more appealing and though she was believable as a Queen she seemed too young to be a senator. She was good in the movie, attractive and appealing. Hayden Christensen seemed much more appealing in the DVD extra features than he did in the movie. Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, and Ian McDiarmid were all good. Dialog was typically clunky. Someone should slowly ease George Lucas away from the typewriter after the general outline of the movie is finished and allow someone with some experience with real people and dialog polish the final version. The movies succeed in spite of the characterizations not because of them. It is the effects and the action that appeal. The fight sequences are so full of detail that subsequent watching is just as enjoyable. There is always FFWD for the love story.